How exactly do you say what happened in Italian?
In this lesson, we will take a deep look at how you can translate this sentence into Italian. Read on to find out!
Cosa…?
What…?
Let’s start! Iniziamo!
How do you say what happened in Italian?
Cos’è successo?
Cos’è successo? is how you most commonly translate what happened into Italian. You will also find the variant che è successo?.
Cos’è successo?
What happened?
Che è successo?
What happened?
This common sentence in Italian is made of three elements.
Cosa, che
What
È
It is
Successo
Happened
Cos’è successo? – Si è rotta la catena della bici.
What happened? – The bike chain broke.
Che è successo? – Un cane ha morso un gatto.
What happened? – A dog bit a cat.
In colloquial language, cosa is often shortened to cos’, with an apostrophe, when it directly 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 stress one word at a time or speak slower so people can understand you.
È comes from essere, to be, which is a verb that belongs to the second -ere group. Its indicativo presente conjugation is irregular and is as follows.
Present tense conjugation for essere
| io | sono |
| tu | sei |
| lui, lei | è |
| noi | siamo |
| voi | siete |
| loro | sono |
Il cane corre in giardino.
The dog runs in the garden.
Sono andata al supermercato per comprare le uova, ma le avevano finite.
I went to the supermarket to buy eggs, but they were out of eggs.
Successo has a double function in Italian.
It can be a masculine noun, il successo, meaning success.
La recita è stata un successo strepitoso.
The play was a resounding success.
And it is the past participle of the verb succedere, meaning to happen.
La corrente elettrica va spesso via. Ormai succede ogni giorno.
The electricity often goes out. It happens every day now.
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Cosa succede?
Along with cos’è successo?, cosa succede? and che succede? are other popular translations for what happened in Italian.
Instead of focusing on the past, however, they focus on the present. That’s why the verb succedere is conjugated here as a third person present tense (succede). This literally translates to 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?
Children, what’s going on? What is that noise?
And that’s it, now you know how to say what happened in Italian!
What next?
➡️ Learn other common Italian questions!
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