Articulated Prepositions in Italian
{or the baby makin’ magic that happens when an article marries a preposition}
When grammar joins together in interesting ways, I like to say that they marry each other.
I think it’s romantic.
I guess you could also say that they file for domestic partnership or get a common law marriage, but for the sake of brevity, I just say that they get married.
When prepositions {di, a, da, in, con, su, per, tra/fra} meet articles {il, la, lo, le, gli, i}, they make some magic - if you know what I mean - and articulated prepositions are born.
If you’re looking to learn about simple prepositions, head on over to this article.
There are two main kinds of prepositions - simple prepositions and articulated prepositions.
Simple prepositions look like this:
di - of
a - to/at/in
da - from/by
in - in
con - with
su - on/over/above/about
per - for/in order to/because
tra - between/among
fra - between/among
To form "le preposizioni articolate", or articulated prepostions, you only need to use FIVE of those simple prepositions.
di - of
a - to/at/in
da - from/by
in - in
su - on/over/above/about
The overall concept is pretty simple.
When you’re forming a sentence and the word following a preposition has an article, you combine them.
Per esempio
Uno dei miei amici - One of my friends
di + i + miei amici = dei miei amici
Posso mangiare del pane? - Can I have some bread?
di + il + pane = del pane
I piatti sono sul tavolo. - The plates are on the table.
su + il + tavolo = sul tavolo
Sto leggendo un libro sulla storia della Cina. - I’m reading a book on the history of China.
su + la + storia = sulla storia
de + la + Cina= della Cina
Vado all’aeroporto! - I’m going to the airport.
a + la + aeroporto = all’aeroporto*
The apostrophe is there because the letter after “all” is a vowel.
Why do they exist?
They create that harmonic melody in Italian, that easy-on-the-ear smoothness.
That’s why you should love them.
They’re probably a large part of the reason you like listening to Italian so much.