"when" in seven languages

Meaningwhen

Spanish

cuándo

/ˈkwando/

inherited

Accent in questions; cuando without it in statements.

French

quand

/kɑ̃/

inherited

The d is pronounced t in liaison: quand il [kɑ̃t‿il].

Italian

quando

/ˈkwando/

inherited

Portuguese

quando

/ˈkwɐ̃du/

inherited

Romanian

când

/kɨnd/

inherited

Catalan

quan

/kwan/

inherited

English

when

/wɛn/

Indo-European kin · PIE *kʷo- (question stem)

English → ItalianwhenquandoDistant cognateRelated only through Indo-European, thousands of years back (night ~ noche).What English and Italian share

The Latin ancestor

QUANDŌ‘when’

All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.

Unchanged in Italian, barely touched in Spanish; French keeps the spelling while swallowing the end into a nasal vowel.