Italian’s possessive construction
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In English, we use ‘s (apostrophe s) to indicate that one noun possesses another. The Italian equivalent is the preposition di, with the order of the nouns reversed.
Per esempio…
la lettera di Roberto | Roberto’s letter | |
i caffè d’Italia | Italy’s cafés |
Literally, "the letter of Roberto" and "the cafés of Italy.”
When the owner is not a proper name, it must be preceded by a modifier, such as an article, possessive adjective, or demonstrative adjective.
Per esempio…
il lavoro dell’ingegnere | the engineer’s work | |
le auto della mia famiglia | my family’s cars | |
la lettera di questa ragazza | this girl’s letter |
When the owner is plural, as signified by s’ (s apostrophe) in English, the Italian modifier must be plural.
Per esempio…
la lettera di queste ragazze | these girls’ letter | |
le auto dei miei figli | my kids’ cars |
As always, di must contract with definite articles.
i caffé del paese | the country’s cafés | |
il lavoro degli ingegneri | the engineers’ work |
The possessive di construction is also equivalent to a descriptive noun plus noun in English.
Per esempio…
le chiavi della macchina | car keys | |
un libro di storia | history book | |
succo d’arancia | orange juice |
Italian is sometimes more precise thanks to this construction, as it makes a distinction that is missing in English.
il libro di italiano (Italian grammar book) |
vs | il libro italiano (book written in Italian) |
Italian book | |
succo d’arancia (juice from oranges) |
vs | succo arancione (orange-colored juice) |
orange juice |
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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.