# Cosa vs Che



## TimLA

In Italiano, pare che si usa piu' la parola "cosa" che la parola "che". Ho visto gente chi parlano Inglese (io incluso) usando "che" spesso nelle frase commune (che conosciamo), pero' quando parla un nativo loro usano "cosa".

Esempi:

Che hai detto? (Americano)
Cosa hai detto? (Italiano)

Che? ("what?", Americano, probablemente sbaglia)
Cosa? ("what?", Italiano, giusto, idiomatico)

Per noi, non e' naturale decire "thing" cosi'.

Ci sono regole o forse "hints" per aiutarci?

Grazie in anticipo


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## sabi

è perchè quando dici 
Che?
ometti "cosa"
cioè potresti dire:
Che cosa?
o 
Che cosa hai detto?


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## Alfry

they are bot acceptable, though "Che cosa...?" would be better

Che si mangia stasera?
Cosa si mangia stasera?
che cosa si mangia stasera?

All of them are the same.

Probably that's a matter of laziness, isn't it?


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## sabi

Comunque sono giuste tutte e due.
ciao

s


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## F4sT

ciauz
guarda che si usano entrambe.. e sono del tutto scambiabili..
"che" magari è più sbrigativo.. e meno "educato"
"cosa vuoi?"
"che vuoi?" 
hanno una lieve differenza.. è meno 'amichevole' "che"..

EDIT: come sono lento


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## TimLA

sabi said:
			
		

> è perchè quando dici
> Che?
> ometti "cosa"
> cioè potresti dire:
> Che cosa?
> o
> Che cosa hai detto?


 
Interessante --
perche' non decimo "what thing" in Inglese,
soltanto "what"...


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## Cenere

Hi. I'm wondering what the main difference is between between 'Che', 'Cosa' and "Che cosa'. What context would cause each usage? 
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks


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## **ellie**

In the meaning of "WHAT?" they all mean the same: Cosa?=What?, Che?=What?, Che cosa?=What?.


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## Alxmrphi

Seeing as che means about a trillion other things I don't like using "che" to mean what by itself, I make sure I always type "che cosa" to avoid confusion, chiefly in my own head.


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## systema encephale

The very same question was asked just three days ago.
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=116122


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## shamblesuk

Una piccola correzione:



			
				TimLA said:
			
		

> Interessante --
> perche' non  decimo *diciamo (we don't say)/diremmo (we wouldn't say) *"what thing" in I*i*nglese,
> soltanto "what"...


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## TimLA

shamblesuk said:
			
		

> Una piccola correzione:


 
Giusto! Grazie!
Una scorregia del cervello


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## Alxmrphi

haha how do you say "what thing" in Italian?

If I went up to Pavorotti and said "cosa cosa" would he know I said "what thing" ?


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## diez

what? s********? it isn't a polite word in italian. _proprio no. _


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## TimLA

diez said:
			
		

> what? s********? it isn't a polite word in italian. _proprio no. _


 
Not very nice, but used.
As one ages we have small lapses of memory...
We call them "brain farts"  a VERY common idiomatic phrase.


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## lsp

Alex_Murphy said:
			
		

> haha how do you say "what thing" in Italian?
> 
> If I went up to Pavorotti and said "cosa cosa" would he know I said "what thing" ?


Better: Che cosa?


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## Alxmrphi

But if most people heard that, wouldn't they just take that as "What?"


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## balgeary

Alex_Murphy said:


> But if most people heard that, wouldn't they just take that as "What?"



Hi all,
I just wanted to revive this thread because I'm curious what the answer is.  Any new ideas?  How would you say "what thing" instead of "what"?

Thanks


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## morgana

Hi,
can you write an example sentence with "what thing"?


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## kittykate

balgeary said:


> How would you say "what thing" instead of "what"?


 
What thing? = _Quale cosa?_

Can you get me that thing over there?
What thing?
The blue key holder

_Mi prendi quella cosa là?_
_Quale cosa?_
_Il portachiavi blu_

caterina


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## morgana

All right, I agree!


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## ignorantdavinci

*C*iao a tutti!

*I* *want to* ask s*ome*th*ing* when we say what did you do in *I*talian we say ''che cosa hai fatto?'' but when we want to say *I* know what you did we say '' so cosa hai fatto'' here is my question: why dont we just say ''so che cosa hai fatto''

*M*ille grazie..


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## Angel.Aura

Ciao ignorantdavinci and welcome to the Forum 



ignorantdavinci said:


> *I* *want to* ask s*ome*th*ing* when we say what did you do in *I*talian we say ''che cosa hai fatto?'' but when we want to say *I* know what you did we say '' so cosa hai fatto'' here is my question: why don*'*t we just say ''so che cosa hai fatto''


Actually, we do say "_So che cosa hai fatto_" for "I know what you did".


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## novizio

I was taught (which does not make it correct) that the original/proper phrase was "che cosa" (what thing), that "che"= what ("thing" implied), and "cosa"= "what thing" ("what" implied), thus all were equally correct but in more formal writing use "che cosa". The earlier example of "quale" was taught to us as "what" more in the sense of "which one" but that we should not be surprised to hear it more broadly used. AND, we were told to use "ciò che" whenever "what" appeared in the middle of a sentence??


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## AlabamaBoy

For what it's worth, during the two years I spent in Northern Italy, I almost never heard "che" by itself. I almost always heard "cosa" to the point that when I heard "che" by itself I thought it was someone speaking Spanish.


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## federicoft

novizio said:


> I was taught (which does not make it correct) that the original/proper phrase was "che cosa" (what thing), that "che"= what ("thing" implied), and "cosa"= "what thing" ("what" implied), thus all were equally correct but in more formal writing use "che cosa".




_Che cosa_ actually sounds pretty formal and it's not commonly used in spoken language, you are much likely to hear _cosa _or _che _instead - the former being more common in Northern Italy and the latter in the rest of the country.
All those expressions are equally correct, but I'd personally say just _che cosa_ in more formal settings.


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## Paulfromitaly

AlabamaBoy said:


> For what it's worth, during the two years I spent in Northern Italy, I almost never heard "che" by itself. I almost always heard "cosa" to the point that when I heard "che" by itself I thought it was someone speaking Spanish.


That's true: we always say "Cosa?" and consider "Che?" something only people from Southern Italy say.


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## Sprocedato

In this long thread nobody has yet pointed out a very important thing: *cosa is always a noun (or pronoun), never an adjective*.

“Che ore sono?” is nowhere ever “cosa ore sono?”.

Other examples: “Che misura porti di scarpe?” “che musica ascolti?” “che giornale stai leggendo?” “che giorno è oggi?” “che opinione ti sei fatto?”

There is one difficult case. In the sentence “che altro è successo?” (what else happend?) _che_ is pronoun and consequently you can say “che cos'altro è successo?” or “cos'altro è successo?” This parallels with the indefinite pronoun _qualcosa_: “È successo qualcos'altro?” (did anything/something else happen?) Note that _altro_ in these constructions is used in a special and exceptional way: it follows the pronoun (normally it precedes nouns) and does not agree in gender with _cosa_ (feminine).


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## novizio

Sprocedato said:


> In this long thread nobody has yet pointed out a very important thing: *cosa is always a noun (or pronoun), never an adjective*.
> 
> “
> There is one difficult case. In the sentence “che altro è successo?” (what else happend?) _che_ is pronoun and consequently you can say “che cos'altro è successo?” or “cos'altro è successo?” This parallels with the indefinite pronoun _qualcosa_: “È successo qualcos'altro?” (did anything/something else happen?) Note that _altro_ in these constructions is used in a special and exceptional way: it follows the pronoun (normally it precedes nouns) and does not agree in gender with _cosa_ (feminine).


 
But isn't "altro" being used as a noun in this case. and therefore does not need to agree, nor does it precede the pronoun, as it would in an adjectival construction? And qualcosa remains feminine because it is a feminine pronoun?


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## Sprocedato

It's difficult and confusing, but _altro_ here, as to the meaning,  is an adjective. Grammatically, I'm not sure if it should be considered a noun or an adjective: in either case the construction is peculiar.

When _cosa_ is the noun, it is feminine. When it is the the interrogative pronoun, it cannot take adjectives and the gender is indefinite (like _che_). The only adjective it can take (if we cosider it an adjective) is _altro_ in “cos'altro?”

When adjectives are needed we use the following constructions:
Che fai di bello? = Cosa fai di bello?
Che c'è di nuovo? = Cosa c'è di nuovo?
Che/cosa c'è di più buono di un caffé alla napoletana?

I cited the case of _che altro/cos'altro_ only because it is the misleading one. It may seem that _che_ is an adjective but it isn't.


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## renminds

I read this long thread and in my opinion the right choice for "what" is "che" because essentially that is the questioning pronoun in Italian language.
"cosa" is just a pleonasm indeed, that over time became a pronoun itself for the common usage and replace the first sometimes.
Besides, I really believe that "altro" in the examples of Sprocedato is an adverb with the meaning of "in addition" (see De Mauro).

Bye,
Renminds


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## Sprocedato

Sprocedato said:


> When it is the the interrogative pronoun, it cannot take adjectives and the gender is indefinite (like _che_)



I've solved this point: when they are pronouns, _che_ and _cosa_ require masculine concord, like _ciò_ and the other ‘neuter’ pronouns.

Che è stato detto alla riunione? Cosa è stato detto?
Hai sentito? Che/cosa è stato? (Did you hear? What was it? - speaking of a noise)

(This differs from the noun _cosa_: È stata una cosa interessante.)


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