Learn Italian: Il nonno guarda la televisione. - The grandfather is watching television.

Il nonno guarda la televisione.

The grandfather is watching television.

Breakdown of Il nonno guarda la televisione.

il nonno

the grandfather / the grandparents (plural)

guardare

to look at / to watch

la televisione

the television

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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 ? I thought family words drop the article.