Interrogative adverbs – (come? how? , dove? where? , quando? when? , quanto? how much? , perché? why?) – are used to introduce a question:
- Dove vai? (Where are you going?)
- Quando torni a casa nostra? (When are you coming back to our house?)
- Come stai? (How are you?)
- Quanto vale? (How much is it worth?)
- Perché sei andato via? (Why did you leave?)
As we can see from the examples given, interrogative adverbs can be of place, time, manner, measure, and cause and are typical of direct questions.
- (tempo) Quando verrai? Non so quando lui verrà
- (time) When will you come? I don’t know when he will come
- (luogo) Dove abiti? Chissà dove abita Luigi
- (place) Where do you live? Who knows where Luigi lives
- (modo) Come stai? Non mi hai ancora detto come stai!
- (manner) How are you? You still haven’t told me how you are!
- (causa) Perché esci? Non so perché l’ho fatto.
- (cause) Why are you going out? I don’t know why I did it.
In subordinate clauses, these adverbs have the value of subordinating conjunctions and can:
- Introduce indirect questions: dimmi come ti chiami (tell me your name); non so quando torna (I don’t know when she’ll be back); non capisco perché fai così (I don’t understand why you do this).
- Join two propositions, with relative value. This is the case of (Dove): il centro storico della città dove lavoro (= nella quale) è considerato dall’Unesco “patrimonio dell’umanità” [ The historic center of the city where (= in which) I work is considered a “world heritage” by UNESCO”].