Learn Italian: Ho cercato ovunque per trovare qualcosa. - I looked everywhere to find something.

Ho cercato ovunque per trovare qualcosa.

I looked everywhere to find something.

Breakdown of Ho cercato ovunque per trovare qualcosa.

for / in order to / because of

Questions & Answers about Ho cercato ovunque per trovare qualcosa.

Does the ending of qualcosa change if I am hoping to find multiple things?

No, qualcosa is an invariable pronoun. That means it never changes its spelling or ending to match gender or number. Whether you are looking for one specific thing or a bunch of things, it always stays qualcosa.

Could I use guardato (from guardare) instead of cercato here, since the translation says 'looked'?

No, because guardare means 'to look at' or 'to watch' (like watching TV or looking at a picture). When you mean 'to look for' or 'to search', you must use the verb cercare.

Why do we use per right before trovare?

In Italian, when you want to express the idea of 'in order to' do something, you use the preposition per followed by the infinitive (dictionary) form of the verb. Here, per trovare literally means 'in order to find'.

What exactly is ovunque and is there another common way to say it?

Ovunque is an adverb meaning 'everywhere', which is why it naturally sits right after the verb phrase ho cercato. If you ever forget this word, you can also use dappertutto, which means the exact same thing.