Where's the train station? Which bus should I take? When does the train leave? How long does it take? In today's lesson, you'll learn how to use question words to navigate your way around Italy.
To help you remember what you learnt in today's lesson, below you'll find bonus materials like word lists, quizzes and flashcards. But first...
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Bonus Materials
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Today's Italian words
Dove = where
Il bagno = the toilet
Dov'è il bagno? = where's the toilet?
è = is
Mi scusi = excuse me
La stazione = the station
Mi scusi, dov'è la stazione? = excuse me, where's the station?
La biglietteria = the ticket office
Mi scusi, dovè la biglietteria? = Excuse me, where's the ticket office?
Quando = when
Parte = he/she/it leaves
Quando parte? = when does it leave?
Quando parte il treno? = when does the train leave?
L'autobus = the bus
Quando parte l'autobus? = when does the bus leave?
Chi = who
Chi è? = Who is it?
il manager = the manager
Chi è il manager? = who's the manager?
Quanto costa? = how much does it cost?
Quanto tempo? = how much time/how long?
Quanto ci vuole? = how long does it take?
Che cosa = what
Che = what
Cosa = what
Che cos'è? = what is it?
Che cosa vi porto? = What shall I bring you?
Che cosa vi porto da bere? = what shall I bring you to drink?
Che cosa vi porto da mangiare = what should I bring you to eat?
Quale = which
Quale treno? = which train?
Quale autobus? = which bus?
Quale binario? = which platform?
Perché? = why?
Mangiamo? = shall we eat?
Perché no? = why not?
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Click here to take the quiz for this episode: How to ask travel questions in Italian
Italian flashcards
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Transcript
Please note: This is not a word-for-word transcript.
Katie: Where’s the train station? Which bus should I take? When does the train leave? How long does it take? What’s that? Question words are essential if you want to use Italian as you navigate your way around Italy. Learn how to use these all-important question words in episode 22 of 5 minute Italian.
Ciao a tutti e benvenuti a 5 minute Italian, hi everyone and welcome to 5 minute Italian. I’m Katie…
Matteo: And I’m Matteo. Ciao.
Katie: And in this week’s episode, we’re going to answer a question sent to us by Lizzy, who is planning a trip to Bologna this summer. She asked us to do an episode on question words. So today we’re going to learn some useful travel phrases, with the all-important words: who, where, what, when, why, which and how. Let’s start with “where” which is…
Matteo: Dove.
Katie: Now imagine you’re in a restaurant and you need to go to the toilet, il bagno, but you can’t find it. So how would you say “where is the toilet?”
Matteo: Dov’è il bagno.
Katie: Dove means “where” è means is. But we put them together. So instead of dove è, we say dov’e. Excuse me is mi scusi and the station is la stazione How would you say “excuse me, where’s the station?”
Matteo: Mi scusi, dov’è la stazione.
Katie: And the ticket office is la biglietteria.
Matteo: La biglietteria
Katie: So how would you say “excuse me, where’s the ticket office”
Matteo: Mi scusi, dov’è la biglietteria?
Katie: Now let’s look at when, which is quando.
Matteo: quando
Katie: "Leaves" is parte. So how would you say “when does it leave?” Italians literally say “when leaves”
Matteo: Quando parte?
Katie: Let’s imagine you want to ask about the train, il treno. Italians put that at the end of the phrase. So how would you say when does the train leave?
Matteo: Quando parte il treno?
Katie: The bus is l’autobus. So how would you say “when does the bus leave?”
Matteo: Quando parte l’autobus?
Katie: Now let’s talk about who, which is chi and we know that “it is” is è. So how would you say “who is it?” Italians literally say “who it is”
Matteo: Chi è?
Katie: Now let’s imagine you want to complain about something. You can ask “who is the manager? Manager is nice and easy, Italians say the English word with an Italian accent. Il manager. How would you say “who is the manager?
Matteo: Chi è il manager?
Katie: Now let’s look at "how", as in "how much", or "how long". How much is:
Matteo: Quanto?
Katie: "Cost" is costa so how do we say “how much does it cost?
Matteo: Quanto costa.
Katie: "Time" is tempo. So to say "how much time", we say…
Matteo: Quanto tempo.
Katie: But what about if we want to ask “how long does it take”. To say “how long”, you can say "how much time" quanto tempo, or simply quanto. "It takes" is ci vuole. Ci vuole. So to say "how long does it take", literally, "how long it takes", we say...
Matteo: Quanto ci vuole?
Katie: Now let’s look at what. We have a few options here. You can say che cosa.
Matteo: che cosa
Katie: Sometimes you may see either of these words used individually, so just che on its own or cosa on its own. But let’s use the full one today che cosa. So let’s imagine you’re exploring Italian food and you see something which looks interesting. You want to ask the waiter “what is it?”. We know that “it is” is è. So how would you say “what is it?”
Matteo: che cos’è?
Katie: And you might often hear waiters say che cosa vi porto?
Matteo: Che cosa vi porto?
Katie: Here vi means you when you’re talking to a group of people and porto means "I bring". So they literally say “what I you bring” which means something like “what shall I bring you?” You might also hear che cosa vi porto da bere. What should I bring you to eat, or che cosa vi porto da mangiare - what should I bring you to eat? Next, to say “which” we say quale.
Matteo: So to say “which train” we say quale treno
Katie: How would you say “which bus”?
Matteo: Quale autobus?
Katie: And "platform" is binario So how would you say “which platform?"
Matteo: quale binaro.
Katie: Finally, let’s learn "why". Which is perchè. So let’s imagine someone suggests doing something. Shall we eat is...
Matteo: Mangiamo?
Katie: And my answer to that question, as always, is "why not?" Not is “no” So how would you say “why not?”
Matteo: Perché no?
Katie: And we did a couple of episodes on how to make suggestions, so if you want to learn more about that you can head back and listen to episodes 7 (what shall we eat today) and 8 (shall we start now? OK)
But for now, that’s it from us today. Big thanks to Lizzy for the question. She should be in Bologna round about now, so if you’re listening Lizzy, buon viaggio. Have a nice trip.
If you have suggestions for future episodes, you can always send us an email at katie@joyoflanguages.com or leave a comment on one of our shows (or post it in the Facebook group!)
K: That’s all we have time for today, thanks for listening. And if you’d like to get more mini Italian lessons delivered to your inbox, don’t forget to subscribe by following the link below. Grazie, and ciao for now, see you next time, or as we say in Italian, alla prossima!
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