8894 Italian prepositions

I am struggling away with trying to learn my Italian prepositions - I know what they all mean but I'm very confused about where to use them. (eg where to use di & where it should be dello, in & nello etc) Does anyone know of any good websites or books that explain this - or are there just not any rules????
:veryconfused:

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Che significa? - Italian Language Queries

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 02/26/2008 - 14:20

:veryconfused:Hi Genhund,
I am studying this at the moment. I have typed the table my teacher gave me , if you get to grips with the general pattern you should be able to remember which one you should be using.

DI is of, A is at/to, DA is from, IN is in, SU is on, Con is with, Per is for and Tra/Fra is between or among.

for example
DI A DA IN SU CON PER TRA/FRA
IL Del al dal nel sul con il per il tra il
Lo dello allo dallo nello sullo con lo per lo tra lo
L' dell' all' dall' nell' sull' con l' per l' tra l'
La della alla dalla nella sulla con la per la tra la
L' dell' all' dall' nell' sull' con l' per l' tra l'
I dei ai dai nei sui con i per i tra i
GLI degli agli dagli negli sugli con gli per gli tra gli
Le delle alle dalle nelle sulle con le per le tra le

Good luck and I hope this helps you.

Auds

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 02/26/2008 - 14:22

Hi Gerhund,

When a looked at my reply on the site it seems to have all compacted .

Il Lo etc. is down the side and the first line on the top should be Di then A etc with Del Al etc underneath.

Auds:veryconfused:

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 02/26/2008 - 15:43

Thanks for this - it all helps. What I really can't get is when you just use the "il"," lo", "di" etc part & when you combine with the "di", "da", "a" etc part. For example - in my book it refers to l'albero dell'ulivio and l'albero di pesce. Why is it dell' for one but only di for the other? Is there a rule that I'm missing somewhere or do you just have to know things like that?
Much obliged for the help!!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 02/26/2008 - 16:29

:no: I do not understand why your book is giving you such a complicated version of some simple nouns. To me, an olive tree is [B][I]l'olivo[/I][/B] and a peach tree is [B][I]il pesco[/I][/B]

[B][I]Di [/I][/B]is the preposition "of", i.e. [B][I]un tavolo di legno[/I][/B]

[B][I]Dell'[/I][/B] is the contraction of the preposition [B][I]di[/I][/B] and the article [B][I]l'[/I][/B], i.e. [B][I]la figlia dell' amica di mia madre [/I][/B](here you have the two examples together.

I hope this is not too confusing....

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 02/26/2008 - 17:54

Ah well - maybe I'm just making a mountain out of a molehill - thanks for your help one & all