Italian Prepositions

Hi guys!

Today I'm gonna share a bit of italian grammar with you all! 

The first thing one should know about prepositions in Italian is that they are divided into two groups: preposizioni semplici andpreposizioni articolate (=combined with the definite articles). When a definite article follows a preposition, they merge together to form anarticulated preposition.

The usual order in which you should memorise them is di, a, da, in, con, su, per, tra, fra.
di: of, from; it’s possibly one of the most important prepositions in the list. It expresses a relationship of belonging between two entities (genitive). When followed by a definite article, di shifts to del, dello, degli, dei, della, delle according to the gender and number of the noun the article is referring to, e.g. i giorni della settimana, la camicia dei baristi. It can also mean from in sentences where you have[essere] + di [città], as in sono di Roma.

• a: at, to; it means at [a place] when used with a verb that expresses state or location, mainly essere and stare, and some of their synonyms like rimanere, restare, etc, e.g. sono a scuola; stare a letto. It becomes al, allo, agli, ai, alla, alle when combined with the definite articles. It’s a very productive prepositions as it is usually employed to form phrasal verbs such as pensare a, chiedere a, dire a, etc.

• da: from, for/since (when talking about time and duration); it becomes dal, dallo, dagli, dai, dalla, dalle when combined with a definite article. It’s mostly used in the same exact way you would use from in English, e.g. from: vengo dal cinema; vengo dalla Svezia. For/since: ti aspetto da due ore; vivo in Italia dal 2010.

• in: in; when combined with the definite articles, it becomes nel, nello, negli, nei, nella, nelle. It usually means inside of something and can thus be a synonym of dentro.

• con: with; it can be combined with all the definite articles, although collo, colla, cogli, colle are often avoided in writing, while the articulated forms col, coi are employed in both writing and speech.

• su: on, above, about; it becomes sul, sullo, sugli, sui, sulla, sulle when combined with the definite articles. There isn’t any particular difference between English on/above and Italian su; e.g. sto seduto sulla sedia; l'aereo vola sulla città. About: è un libro sulla prima guerra mondiale.

• per: for, through; per never merges with the definite articles in standard Italian, whereas articulation may be employed in poetry. Its meanings aren’t much different than in English, e.g. il regalo è per te; ho letto per un giorno intero. It can also meanbecause of in sentences like ho pianto per il dolore.

• tra/fra: between, among, in (when talking about time); both tra and fra are synonyms nowadays and can both mean between andamong. There isn’t any specific difference in usage in Italian compared to its English counterpart. Combination with the definite articles is not possible, e.g. between/among ci vediamo fra le 3 e le 4; siediti tra Carlo e Francesco; il fiore fra gli alberi. In: ci vediamo fra due ore.

Source:http://langsandlit.tumblr.com/post/135450672168/italian-prepositions-an-introduction


I hope you liked it! This will be my last post in 2015, so I want to wish you all a very good New Year, may all your wishes for 2016 become true as well, and I'll see you next time!

Nana