ABSTRACT
Interrogatives are adjectives, pronouns and adverbs used to ask questions. In English, question words are why? where? when? how? who? whose? what? which? how much? how many? how long? In Italian, as in English, asking a question does not always require a specific interrogative word. In contrast to English, however, in Italian there is no need for a special word order: affirmative and interrogative sentences can be identical in structure, apart from the speaker's rising tone of voice, which indicates that it is a question. In Italian, the order of the subject and the verb is more flexible than in English, as the subject may come after the verb. Questions can be direct or indirect, with a flexible subject position. In a direct question where the subject is expressed as a noun or pronoun, its position is variable. In English, unlike Italian, interrogative pronouns have some forms in common with relative pronouns.
