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- "What is it?"
"What is it?"
Translation:Cos'è?
48 Comments
"Cos'è" is what is; while "Che cos'è" is what is it/that (direct translation of "che cos'è" is "that what is".. I hope you understand it.
I believe there is some truth in this, so I do not know why people are downgrading this comment.
both means "what is it" but i saw on another discussion that "Che cos'è" is more polite.
I put che cos'é (that is the only accent I can do here) and was marked correct. I looked into this discussion and the answer given is "Che é?" I thought Italian tried to avoid awkward juxtapositions like that and made some form of elision.
Fun easter egg. If you get a sentence when you need the answer to be in english, and you get it wrong, one of the answers is "cos'e?" When you hover over "cos", one of the listed translations is "what-d'yer-call-it".
Essentially you're saying, "what there is". C'è is the contraction of "ci" and "è" which means "there is". "Cosa" is used with "che" but it's not exclusive to it and it essentially means "what thing".
There's another question, in this same lesson that gives cosa c'é and translates it to "What is it?" I'm not sure which to mark as incorrect?
This has cost me my final heart twice on this lesson! Ugh.
Perhaps you're thinking about "cos'è" which means something a bit different than "c'è"? "Cos'è" means "what is it" while "c'è" means "there is". I haven't experienced this question yet so I have no frame of reference to help you out...
I put in "cos'è" for "what is it" and it didn't accept it. They wanted "che cos'è"
I vouche as well. I just saw DL translate "Cosa c'è" as "What is it?" in a question right before this one. I paid special attention, because I missed this current question already and thought I'd seen the prior one--so I was confused as to how I got this wrong.
I just added it as a possibility. They do have different meanings, however, and are used in different contexts. "Cosa c'è?" (And "Che c'è?") means "What is it?" as in "What's wrong?" "Cos'è?" (and also "Che cos'è" and "Che è") means "What is it?" as in "What is this thing?"
On a tablet, as on a mobile phone, is you long press the letter in question you will normally get a pop up window offering that letter with different types of accents; I get it in Android.
Both, but DL should accept it as a typo unless something changed. 'Ché' has the meaning of 'perché' (because/as/since) instead of 'che' (that/what/which/whom/...), and in Italian orthography you don't put a space before punctuation.
Thanks for your answer. I don't edit my post because if i do yours become difficult to understand. And it is really interesting. You did great for the spread of Italian through the world. Alone, at the beginning, if I remember well. Volevo dirtelo da molto tempo: Bravo Fernando!
Once again I had the same answer as the correction, yet it says I am wrong!
What is "che", then you put the subject "Cosa", which is completed by a verb "è".
Dunno, cos'è is more direct, not so much more polite than "che cos'è". But it is the sane thing! (I'm Italian)
There is more a sense of formal vs informal between the two. If you are friendly with some one you may use the shorter version but that version may "feel" rude if you are speaking to a supervisor, teacher, etc. or someone you don't know well.
When does an accent point left and when does it point right? I seem to be getting 'scolded' to pay attention to the accents...
If you're not sure, I would start by guessing the accent points down (è grave accent) as that's the majority. There are only a few words where the accent points up (é acute accent). Perché is one of the few words with an acute accent, so that's worth remembering.
Note the accent tells you which way your voice should go, i.e. an accent point up, your voice goes up, and then down for down. Note there's no rule for which words have acute or grave accents, so you just have to learn them.
Isn't it possible to say: Che cosa è questo? I mean it has the word in the sentence.
why not : "cos'è questo?" Ho sentito tante volte queste parole in Italia!
Ohhhhh... no space, but an apostrophe between Cos and è! I've been getting "You have a typo" time after time, yet the example answer appears to match exactly what I typed because the answer does not include the apostrophe. >:(
Here's a curveball. I put "C'è che" and DL gave it to me. Should they have?
I have put cos'e and they say the answer is qual e. Then I put in qual e and it says the answer is cos'e. Can't move on. Ridiculous. It's clear you never look at of respond to, or take action re: glitches.
