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Dove abita la tua famiglia?

Dove abita la tua famiglia?
Where does your family live?
From Lesson 31:Question words (chi, cosa, dove)·Italian

Breakdown of Dove abita la tua famiglia?

dove
where
la famiglia
the family
tuo
your
abitare
to live

Questions & Answers about Dove abita la tua famiglia?

Why is there no word for "does" in the Italian sentence?
Italian doesn't use helper words like "do" or "does" to make questions. You simply put the question word Dove (Where) at the start, followed immediately by the main verb abita (lives).
Why does the verb abita come before the subject la tua famiglia?
In Italian questions starting with interrogative words like dove (where), the subject usually moves to the end of the sentence. So instead of "Where your family lives?", the natural order is "Where lives the your family?" (Dove abita la tua famiglia?).
Why is it la tua famiglia with la (the)? We don't say "the your family" in English.
In Italian, you almost always need a definite article (like la or il) before a possessive word (like tua). While there is an exception where you drop the article for singular relatives (like tuo fratello), the word famiglia is treated as a regular group noun, so it keeps the la.
A family has multiple people, so why do we use the singular verb abita instead of the plural abitano?
The word famiglia is a collective noun. Even though it represents a group of people, the word itself is a singular feminine noun (one family). Therefore, it takes the third-person singular "he/she/it" form of the verb, which is abita.

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