Learn Italian: Che cosa significa questa parola?

Che cosa significa questa parola?

What does this word mean?

Breakdown of Che cosa significa questa parola?

Questions & Answers about Che cosa significa questa parola?

Why does Italian use two words (Che cosa) to say "What"?

In Italian, you can use che, cosa, or che cosa to ask "what?". They all mean the exact same thing! Che cosa literally translates to "what thing" and is the most traditional form, but you'll hear native speakers use all three interchangeably in everyday conversation.

Where is the word for "does" in this sentence?

Italian doesn't use helper words like "do" or "does" to ask questions. Instead of "What does this word mean?", Italian simply asks "What means this word?".

Why is the subject (questa parola) at the very end of the sentence?

In Italian questions, it is very common to change the word order and put the subject after the verb. While you could technically say Che cosa questa parola significa?, putting the verb first (Che cosa significa questa parola?) sounds much more natural to native speakers.

Why is it questa instead of questo?

Words for "this" have to match the gender of the noun they describe. Because parola (word) is a feminine noun, we must use the feminine questa instead of the masculine questo.