8 Quale? Quale  means ‘which’ (or sometimes ‘what’). It is used either as an adjective or as a pronoun, and therefore agrees with the noun it refers to:  qual e , ‘which (one)’,  qual i , ‘which (ones)’. The use of  quale  rather than  che  usually implies that there is a choice, as for example if there are some books lying on the table:  Quale libro leggi?  ‘Which book are you reading?’: * Qual  (without an apostrophe) is used before the forms of  essere  starting with a vowel; used in this way, it sometimes means ‘what’ rather than ‘which’. 9 As is seen in some of the examples in paragraphs 2, 3, 4 and 7,  cosa ,  che cosa ,  come ,  dove  and  quanto  can also be shortened before the forms of  essere starting with a vowel, becoming  cos’ ,  che cos’ ,  com’ ,  dov’  and  quant’  (all  with an apostrophe): Cos’era quel rumore? Che cos’è successo? Com’era lo spettacolo? Dov’è la stazione? Quant’è costato? What was that noise? What happened? How was the show? Where is the station? How much did it cost? Qual e  canzone preferisci? Qual i  esercizi facciamo? Qual i  sono i tuoi libri? ‘Compro due giornali.’ ‘Qual i ?’ Qual è la canzone più famosa? * Qual è il Suo indirizzo / numero di telefono? * Which song do you prefer? Which exercises are we doing? Which are your books? ‘I’m buying two papers.’ ‘Which ones?’ Which/What is the best-known song? What’s your address/phone number? Unit 9 71