Interrogative Pronouns/Adjectives
Interrogative pronouns and adjectives are used for asking questions:
a) chi(who): it is invariable.
Chi mi ha svegliato? Who awaked me?
Non so chi ha chiamato la polizia I don't know who called the police
b) che(what): it is invariable too.
Che ore sono? What time is it?
Che fai? what are you doing?
c) quale(what, which): It's both a pronoun and an adjective. it has the same desinences of "-e"
adjectives. Use "che" when you're want to get a generic description of the listener's goal. Use "quale"
when you want the listener to choose a definite item amost a lot of different ones.
Quale di questi libri vuoi comprare?Which of these books do you want to buy?
Che fai? what are you doing?
d) quanto(how much, how many): it's both a pronouns and and adjective. It has the same desinences of "-o"
adjectives.
Quanto è lontano l'aeroporto? How far is the airport?
Quanti anni hai? How old are you (lit How many years do you have)?
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Relative Pronouns
Relative pronous are used in relative clauses. Relative pronouns are quite easy in Italian. But first of all you have to remember that the relative pronoun
cannot be omitted in Italian. The most used relative pronouns are listed below:
a)che: it is invariable, and can be used for indicating both the subject and the direct object of the relative
clause.
Il libro che paolo ha comprato ieri è interessante The book that Paolo bought yesterday is interesting
L'autore che ha scritto quel libro ora è famoso The author who wrote that book is now famous
b) cui: it is invariable too, and it always used to form prepositional objects. Note that in Italian, the preposition
preceds the pronoun and cannot be moved to the end of the clause like in English:
Il libro di cui ti ho parlato è interessante The book I've told you about is interesting
La ragazza con cui sono uscito ieri è tua sorella
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Relative Clauses
Relative Clauses can be expresse in two ways:
a) explicit way: they're preceded by a pronouns like "che", "cui" or by an adverb like "dove" or "da dove"
and they usually have the verb in the Indicative mode:
Questo è il maglione che ho comprato ieri This is the sweater I bought yesterday
La città dove viveva... The town where he lived...
La Paese da dove viene... The Country he comes from...
b) implicit: they're preceded by the prepositions "con", "in", "a", "per" or "di" followed by "cui" or "da", and they have the verb in the infinitive mode.
"Da" is always followed by cui when the noun the relative clause refers to is not the subject or the direct object of it:
Questo è l'automobile da riparare This is the car which has to be fixed
E'un posto da cui fuggire It is a place you should escape from
Non è una persona di cui ridere He's not a person you can laugh at
I trovato i soldi con cui comprare la casa I have found the money with which I can buy the house
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