When to Use the Prepositions ‘A’, ‘In’ and ‘Da’ in Italian

There are plenty of pesky prepositions in the Italian language.

Plenty of them that you’ll curse on the daily when you’re inevitably in Italy.

But today, we’re going to focus on two of them in the specific situation of location.

Should I use ‘A’, ‘In’, or ‘Da’ for this location!?

Okay, let’s break it down.

Here’s when you would use ‘a’: cities & before the nouns (casa, scuola, teatro, piedi, letto, and tavola)

– Exceptions: a Taiwan, a Cuba

Here’s when you would use ‘in’: regions, large islands, countries, states, continents, and before nouns (classes, biblioteca, ufficio, chiesa, città, vacanza, montagna, e campagna).

– Large islands: Sicilia and Sardegnia

[photo credit: Eduardo Arostogui]

Here’s when you would use ‘da’: talk about a home or where someone works, referring to where someone comes from with a city or a province.

Esempi

– Viviamo a Cuba. – We live in Cuba.
– Vivo in Europa. – I live in Europe.
– Vado a letto. – I’m going to bed.
– Vorrei andare in montagna! – I would like to go to the mountains.
– Sono andata in chiesa a Las Vegas ieri mattina. – I went to church in Las Vegas yesterday morning.
– Vengo da Viterbo. – I’m from Viterbo.

[photo credit: Cristiano Marchese]

– Vado da Luca. – I’m going to Luca’s house.
– Partiamo da Napoli. – We’re leaving from Naples.

[photo credit: Giuliano Longone]

There are pools and pools of other uses for ‘a’, ‘in’ and ‘da’, but we’ll take them step by step, so you can get this rule stuck in your mind first.

Now, in the comments below, tell me one city, one continent, one country, and one region in Italy that you want to go to….in Italian. :]

Start with, “Prima o poi, andrò … “

[‘Prima o poi’ is an expression that implies you’re not sure of when in the future, but it literally means ‘Before or then’.]

Want to learn about the other prepositions in Italian, too?

Read this article: Simple Prepositions in Italian {or Why the Smallest Words Hurt the Most}

Questions/Comments? Drop ’em below.