che cosa e

Icetee – Sat, 09 Oct 2010 19:08:17 -0500

Che cosa e means what is it? So che = what. But what does cosa mean? It can't mean 'is it?' because the e means that. I am so confused with 'che cosa!!!

Jeff S – Wed, 03 Nov 2010 17:22:32 -0500

"Cosa" means "thing;" So the exact translation is "What thing is it?" Or, I suppose, even more literally, "What thing is?" Either of those would sound awkward in English, so the free translation is simply "What is it?"

Maria DiLorenzi – Thu, 04 Nov 2010 23:32:28 -0500

Ciao Icetee,

Jeff is correct!
The translation of the sentence "che cos'è?" (or "che cosa è?") is "what is it?".
Literally it will be
che = what
cosa= thing
è= is

Buon divertimento!

Icetee – Wed, 29 Dec 2010 18:58:19 -0600

Thank you very much for that help. I am beginning to understand. But just one thing. Sometimes cosa is used to mean what as in 'cosa hai fatto oggi? What have you done today? Should this be translated as 'what thing have you done today?'

Many thanks.

Maria DiLorenzi – Tue, 04 Jan 2011 02:05:00 -0600

Ciao Icetee,

you are correct !
"Cosa hai fatto oggi?" is the short way to say "che cosa hai fatto oggi?".
The literal translation would be "what thing have you done today?" but in English we omit the "thing" saying "what have you done today?".

Buon divertimento with Rocket Italian!
Ciao

Icetee – Sat, 08 Jan 2011 16:35:06 -0600

Thank you and at last I now have a clear explanation of the use of che and cosa.

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che cosa e

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