perché

See also: perche, Perche, perchè, pèrche, and perche'

French

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Participle

perché (feminine perchée, masculine plural perchés, feminine plural perchées)

1. past participle of percher

Further reading

• “perché”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• pécher, pêcher
• prêche, prêché

Italian

Alternative forms

• perchè, perche' (misspellings)
• perche (obsolete)

Etymology

Univerbation of per (“for”) +‎ che (“which”), probably inherited from Vulgar Latin. Compare Neapolitan pecché, Sicilian pirchì, and further Romance parallels such as Sardinian pro chite, French pourquoi, Spanish porque/por qué, Portuguese porque/por que.

Pronunciation

• (standard) IPA^(key): /perˈke/^*
  • Rhymes: -e
  • Hyphenation: per‧ché
• (Lombardy, parts of Emilia-Romagna) IPA^(key): /perˈkɛ/^°

  • Audio (Milan):

    (file)

Conjunction

perché

1. because, why

   L'ho fatto perché volevo. ― I did it because I wanted to.

2. (+ subj.) so, so that, in order that

   L'ho fatto perché potesse essere libero. ― I did it so that he could be free.

Adverb

perché

1. why

   Synonym: come mai

   Perché il cielo è azzurro? ― Why is the sky blue?

Derived terms

• perché mai
• perché no

Noun

perché m (uncountable)

1. the whys, the reason (why)

   Vorrei proprio sapere il perché. ― I would really like to know the reason.

   Non so perché, ma non mi sento bene. ― I don't know why, but I don't feel well.

Spanish

Verb

perché

1. first-person singular preterite indicative of perchar