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Preposizioni articolate
Articulated prepositions are the contractions of certain Italian prepositions with definite articles. In English, contractions like "I’m" and "won’t" are optional and indicate informality. In Italian, however, preposizioni articolate are required, regardless of the register you’re speaking or writing in.
Of the nine most common Italian prepositions, five* have articulated forms. This table can seem overwhelming at first, but take a look and you’ll quickly see the patterns.
Contracted Prepositions
| il | lo | la | l’ | i | gli | le | ||||||||
| a | al | allo | alla | all’ | ai | agli | alle | |||||||
| da | dal | dallo | dalla | dall’ | dai | dagli | dalle | |||||||
| di | del | dello | della | dell’ | dei | degli | delle | |||||||
| in | nel | nello | nella | nell’ | nei | negli | nelle | |||||||
| su | sul | sullo | sulla | sull’ | sui | sugli | sulle |
Per esempio…
| Vado al negozio. | I’m going to the store. | |
| Arriva dagli Stati Uniti. | He’s arriving from the United States. |
* There is in fact a sixth preposition, con, with articulated forms, but these are no longer commonly used. You may encounter them in literature and idiomatic expressions.
| il | lo | la | l’ | i | gli | le | ||||||||
| con | col | collo | colla | coll’ | coi | cogli | colle |
Contracted prepositions are known as preposizioni articolate, in contrast to basic prepositions called preposizioni semplici.
Note that the articulated prepositions with di are identical to their corresponding partitive articles, and that the plural forms are also identical to their corresponding indefinite articles.
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Ciao! I’m Laura K Lawless, creator, writer, editor, and CLO (Chief Lawless Officer) of this free online Italian learning site. Lawless Italian is an official Lawless Languages site.
