Cos’è successo?
| Words you should know | Cosa (what) + essere (to be) + succedere (to happen) |
Cos’è successo?
What happened?
Che è successo?
What happened?
Cos’è successo? – Si è rotta la catena della bici.
What happened? – The bicycle chain broke.
Che è successo? – Un cane ha morso un gatto.
What happened? – A dog bit a cat.
In colloquial speech, cosa is often shortened to cos’, with an apostrophe, when it immediately precedes a verb beginning with a vowel. You could also ask cosa è successo, but this is very formal and it doesn’t come naturally when speaking.
You could say cosa è successo, for example, to emphasize one word at a time or to speak slower so that people can understand you.
Successo has a double function in Italian.
It can be a masculine noun, il successo, which means success.
La recita è stata un successo strepitoso.
The play was a resounding success.
And it is the past participle of the verb succedere, which means to happen.
La corrente elettrica va spesso via. Ormai succede ogni giorno.
The electricity often goes out. It happens every day now.
Cosa succede?
In addition to cos’è successo?, cosa succede? and che succede? are other popular translations for what happened in Italian.
However, instead of focusing on the past, they focus on the present. That’s why the verb succedere is conjugated here as a third-person present tense (succede). This literally translates as what happens?.
Cosa succede?
What is happening?
Literally: What happens?
Che succede?
What is happening?
Cosa succede ogni tre settimane?
What happens every three weeks?
Cosa sta succedendo?
Last but not least, you can also translate what happened in Italian as a gerund with cosa sta succedendo?, which is a literal translation of what it happening?. The variant with che is also popular.
Ideally, you use this to emphasize your question, as in “what is happening here?”, che sta succedendo qui?.
It can also translate the English sentence what’s going on?.
Cosa sta succedendo?
What is happening? What’s going on?
Che sta succedendo?
What is happening?
Bambini, che sta succedendo? Cos’è questo rumore?
Kids, what’s going on? What is that noise?
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