Il nonno guarda la televisione.

Questions & Answers about Il nonno guarda la televisione.

How would I ask 'Who is watching television?' based on this sentence?
You would use the interrogative word chi (who). The question is simply Chi guarda la televisione? Notice that chi acts as the subject, so the verb guarda stays in the third-person singular (he/she/it) form.
If I wanted to ask 'What is the grandfather watching?', how do I use che cosa?
You would ask Che cosa guarda il nonno? (or simply Cosa guarda il nonno?). In Italian, the subject (il nonno) often goes at the end of a question when it starts with a question word like che cosa.
How would I ask 'Where does the grandfather watch television?' using dove?
You would say Dove guarda la televisione il nonno? The question word dove (where) goes at the beginning, and again, the subject (il nonno) typically moves to the end of the sentence.
The translation says 'is watching', but isn't guarda just 'watches'?
In Italian, the simple present tense (like guarda) translates to both 'watches' (a habit) and 'is watching' (happening right now). You do not need a separate verb form to express what he is doing at this exact moment.
Why is there an il before nonno? I thought family words drop the article.
Family members only drop the definite article when they are singular and paired with a possessive word (like mio nonno for 'my grandfather'). Because we are just saying 'the grandfather' here without a possessive, you must use the article il.

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