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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.
