Breakdown of Qual è la causa del danno?
essere
to be
del
of the; than the (di + il)
quale
which (singular / plural: quali)
il danno
the damage
la causa
the cause
Questions & Answers about Qual è la causa del danno?
Why is there no apostrophe in "Qual è"?
The word quale drops its final -e before the verb è, but it is considered a "truncation" rather than an "elision" (like when la becomes l'). By a strict Italian spelling rule, the truncated form qual does not take an apostrophe. Writing qual'è is a very common mistake even among native Italians, but qual è is the strictly correct spelling.
This lesson is about "a causa di". Why doesn't this sentence use "a causa di"?
In this sentence, la causa acts as a regular noun meaning "the cause". You use the compound preposition a causa di when you want to say "because of" or "due to". For example, if you wanted to state a consequence like "The road is closed because of the damage," you would use the preposition: La strada è chiusa a causa del danno.
If the lesson also teaches "per colpa di" (because of / through the fault of), could I use "colpa" instead of "causa" here?
Why do we use "del" instead of just "di" before "danno"?
Because you are talking about "the" damage, not just damage in general. You must combine the preposition di (of) with the masculine singular definite article il (the) to create the articulated preposition del (of the). Leaving out the article and just saying di danno would sound unnatural here.
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