Learn Italian: Perché tornano in albergo tardi? - Why do they return to the hotel late?

Perché tornano in albergo tardi?

Why do they return to the hotel late?

Breakdown of Perché tornano in albergo tardi?

l'albergo

the hotel

in / made of (material)

Questions & Answers about Perché tornano in albergo tardi?

Does perché mean both "why" and "because"?

Yes! In Italian, perché is used for both "why" in a question and "because" in an answer. For example, you can ask "Perché tornano?" (Why do they return?) and answer "Perché sono stanchi" (Because they are tired).

How do we know the sentence is about "they" if the word loro isn't there?

The verb ending tells us. Tornano is the "they" form of tornare (to return). In Italian, you usually drop the subject pronoun because the verb's ending already makes it completely clear who is doing the action.

Why is it in albergo and not all'albergo?

For certain common places, Italian uses the preposition in without adding a word for "the" (the definite article). You will learn these as set phrases, such as in albergo (to/in the hotel), in banca (to/in the bank), and in centro (to/in the city center).

Where is the word for "do" in this question?

Italian doesn't use helper words like "do" or "does" to ask questions. You just put the question word (perché) at the beginning and use the normal verb. "Why do they return?" translates directly as "Perché tornano?".