Grammar summary Quando? Quanto? 1 Perché? 2
265 When? How much? Why?
Note: 1 come, quanto, (plus verb) and che (plus noun or adjective), can also be used as exclamatives: Come sei elegante! Quanto sei elegante! Che bello! Che paura! Che fortuna!
How smart you are! How smart you are! How lovely! What a fright! What luck!
2 perché also means ‘because’.
Relative pronouns • che ‘who, whom, which’ can refer to a person or an object and can be the subject or the object of the clause it introduces. See Unit 4 for a detailed treatment. • cui, not che, is used after a preposition: La signora con cui ho parlato è stata molto gentile. The lady who I talked with was very nice. • il cui, la cui, i cui, le cui all mean ‘whose’; the article must be the one that would go with the object possessed: Il signor Rossi, la cui figlia vuole studiare negli Stati Uniti . . . Mr Rossi, whose daughter wants to study in the United States . . . L’autore, i cui libri hanno un enorme successo, ha accettato il nostro invito. The author whose books are having a great success has accepted our invitation. • il quale, la quale, i quali, le quali – ‘who, which’ can replace che or cui and are especially useful to avoid ambiguity: La figlia di mio cugino, la quale lavora in Francia, . . . My cousin’s daughter, who works in France, . . .