Answers
Jan 25, 2011 - 03:16 PM
Quanto follows all the rules for femine, masculine and plurals. The one exception is with the expression "Quanto costa?" where you always use the masculine singular. Ex: Quanto costa questa penna? Quanto costa questo? If you were referring to more than one object, Quanto still remains singular, yet the verb costare needs to be conjugated in the appropriate form. The verb is "costare" and it is a regular "are" verb- Quanto costano due valigie?
For the rest of the cases here a reminder of what you should do with the endings:
'o' turns into 'i'--- libro (book) libri (books)
'a' turns into 'e'-- valigia (suitcase) valigie (suitcases)
'e' turns into 'i' -- bicchiere (glass) bicchieri (glasses)
With that in mind, you apply the same rules to Quanto.
Singular masculine: Quanto - Quanto cafe vuoi? (How much coffee do (you(i)) want?
Masculine plural: Quanti- Quanti libri vuoi? (How many books do (you(i)) want?
Singular feminine: Quanta - Quanta farina? (How much flour?)
Feminine plural: Quante valigie vuole? (How many suitcases do (you) want?)
And the exception: Quanto costa.
Hope this helps clear things up.
For the rest of the cases here a reminder of what you should do with the endings:
'o' turns into 'i'--- libro (book) libri (books)
'a' turns into 'e'-- valigia (suitcase) valigie (suitcases)
'e' turns into 'i' -- bicchiere (glass) bicchieri (glasses)
With that in mind, you apply the same rules to Quanto.
Singular masculine: Quanto - Quanto cafe vuoi? (How much coffee do (you(i)) want?
Masculine plural: Quanti- Quanti libri vuoi? (How many books do (you(i)) want?
Singular feminine: Quanta - Quanta farina? (How much flour?)
Feminine plural: Quante valigie vuole? (How many suitcases do (you) want?)
And the exception: Quanto costa.
Hope this helps clear things up.