“Quello che” in Italian
In Italian, the phrase quello che is an incredibly useful and versatile expression. It generally translates to “what” in English, or “the thing that”, depending on the context.
In this sense, it grammatically behaves as a relative pronoun, as it links a sentence to another by referring back to a previously mentioned noun or pronoun.
Ora ti insegno quello che devi sapere.
Now I’ll teach you what you must know.
The Italian “Quello”
In Italian, quello is a demonstrative adjective and pronoun. It corresponds to the English “that”, as opposed to questo which means “this”.
Learn how to say “this” and “that” in Italian!
Just like in English, these words vary depending on the distance between the speaker and the item they are referring to, and are used to spatially refer to something.
However, unlike English ones, Italian adjectives must agree in gender and number with the noun they refer to. The consequence is that quello can have four forms, as I will show you below:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Quello | Quelli |
| Feminine | Quella | Quelle |
Quelli che arrivano tardi non entrano.
Those who arrive late won’t come in.
Quelle che preferisco sono le scarpe rosse.
The ones I prefer are the red shoes.
How to use “Quello che” in Italian
“Quello che” as a Subject
One of the most common uses of quello che is to introduce a topic without directly naming it. When used this way, the entire clause introduced by quello che is the subject of the sentence.
Therefore, both the word quello and the verb will have to agree to the implicit item, as you can see in the example below:
Quello che hai detto è vero.
What you said is true.
Quelle che hai comprato sono abbastanza.
Those that you bought are enough.
When used to generalize, that is, when it does not refer to something that is understandable by the context, quello is always masculine singular, as masculine singular are the default gender and number in Italian:
Quello che facciamo oggi influenzerà il futuro.
What we do today will influence the future.
Quello che conta è l’impegno.
What matters is the commitment.
Quello che mi piace di più dell’Italia è il cibo.
What I like most about Italy is the food.
“Quello che” to Introduce a Subordinate Clause
In Italian, quello che is often used to introduce a subordinate clause that expands on or clarifies an idea from the main clause, for example:
Dimmi quello che vuoi fare.
Tell me what you want to do.
Parlami di quello che hai fatto ieri.
Talk to me about what you did yesterday.
These sentence use quello che to introduce a clarification or explanation. As you can see, when it is used as a relative pronoun as in these examples, it is always masculine singular.
“Quello che” vs “ciò che”
While quello che is more commonly used in everyday speech, you might also hear or read ciò che in more formal contexts. Both phrases mean essentially the same thing, ciò che tends to sound more formal or literary.
The ways it can be used are exactly the same:
Ciò che dici è importante.
What you say is important.
Mi piace ciò che indossi.
I like what you are wearing.
