Learn Italian: Come lavora il nuovo collega? - How does the new colleague work?

Come lavora il nuovo collega?

How does the new colleague work?

Breakdown of Come lavora il nuovo collega?

Questions & Answers about Come lavora il nuovo collega?

Why is the verb lavora right after Come?

In Italian questions starting with a question word like Come (How), the verb usually comes immediately after it. Instead of saying 'How the new colleague works?', Italian rearranges the sentence to say 'How works the new colleague?' (Come lavora il nuovo collega?).

Why isn't there a word for 'does' in the Italian sentence?

English uses helper words like 'do' or 'does' to ask questions, but Italian doesn't. The single verb lavora covers 'works', 'is working', and 'does work'.

The word collega ends in -a. Why do we use the masculine words il and nuovo?

The word collega (colleague) is a special noun that ends in -a for both men and women. To show gender, you change the words around it. Since this sentence uses masculine il and nuovo, we know this is a male colleague. If it were a female colleague, it would be la nuova collega.

Why is nuovo placed before the noun? Don't Italian adjectives usually go after?

Most descriptive adjectives do go after the noun. However, a small group of very common adjectives relating to age, size, or goodness (like nuovo, vecchio, grande, buono) frequently go before the noun.