Italian All-in-One For Dummies (118 page)

Forming Complements (Preposition + Noun, Name, or Pronoun)

You can form short phrases by putting together a preposition and a noun, a name, or a pronoun. These combinations are called
complementi
(
complements
) because they complete the meaning of a sentence. Italian has a vast array of complements, as you see if you check an Italian grammar book.

You use certain prepositions in a given context: place, for example. If you want to say,
I'm going from Florence to Palermo,
you need two prepositions that have to do with place (
from
and
to
). As you get familiar with prepositions, you'll realize that you can use the same preposition in different contexts, as happens in English with
in,
for example, which works with both
place
and
time
(as happens in Italian, too). The following sections provide the main contexts and the prepositions you use to talk about each of them.

Possession and specification

If you say that something belongs to someone, or if you convey information about someone or something, you use
di
(
of; about
), as in these examples:
il succo di mele
(
apple juice
);
le foto del matrimonio
(
the photos of the wedding
);
la paura della fame
(
the fear of hunger
).

In English, you attribute characteristics to people or other things by inverting the word order or placing
of
between an object and another noun representing a feature that object possesses (
the brilliance of diamonds
). You also may add an apostrophe and
s
to a noun or a name or use a possessive adjective, such as
his
or
her.
Here's how Italian works:

Use
di
to link a feature to a person or thing that has that feature, as in
il piano del tavolo
(
the table top
).

To convey ownership, use possessive adjectives and pronouns (see
Chapter 6
in Book III for details) or
di
followed by the thing owned, as in
il gatto di Marta
(
Marta's cat
) or
il suo gatto [di Marta]
(
her cat
).

Qualities and functions

You can talk about features of things by emphasizing a characteristic that makes them what they are, as in
la scollatura a V
(
a V-neck
), or by indicating their function, as in
le carte da gioco
(
playing cards
). In English, you invert the word order or add an adjective to a noun. So when you have those two constructions in English, you have to decide whether to use
di
(
of
),
a
(
at; in
), or
da
(
by; from
) in Italian.

You can test which preposition works by performing the following experiment. If you say
the table top,
can you change that phrase to
the top of the table
? The answer is yes. In Italian, you use
di,
writing
il piano del tavolo.
But if you say
a motor boat,
can you turn it into
the boat of a motor
? Unlikely. You're talking about
a boat with a motor.
In Italian, it's
la barca a motore.
And if you say,
a pleated skirt,
can you turn it into
the skirt's pleated
? Obviously not. It's
a skirt with pleats.
In Italian, it becomes
la gonna a pieghe.
And what about
a golf ball
? Are you talking about
a ball's golf, a golf's ball,
or
a ball you use to play golf
? Clearly, the latter. When you describe what something is used for, you choose
da
in Italian:
la pallina da golf.
Here are the general rules:

To indicate a feature of an object, you use noun +
a
+ another noun:
la barca a vela
(
sailing boat
).

To indicate a feature that explains the function of an object, you use noun +
da
+ noun:
la palla da tennis
(
tennis ball
).

You also use
da
+ number to convey value, as in
Vuoi un anello da 10.000 euro?!
(
You want a ring that costs 10,000 euro?!
), but you use
di
for numbers to count things, such as
Legge un libro di cinquecento pagine
(
She's reading a 500-page book
).

Place

Place
is a label that refers to activities ranging from staying still to going through, both physically and metaphorically. English uses only
to
(and
into
or
onto
) to convey motion toward something, whereas Italian uses
in
(
in
),
a
(
at; to
),
da
(
by,
as in
by the window
), and
su
(
on
). Italian chooses the preposition on the basis of various features of place.

In, into, on, over, above, and behind

You use the following prepositions regarding place, depending on what you're discussing:

For a point in space, use
a: a Genova
(
in/to Genoa
);
all'angolo
(
at/to the corner
);
al Colosseo
(
at/to the Coliseum
);
al primo piano
(
on the first floor
).

To indicate geographical position and distance, use
a: Siamo a nord-ovest di Trieste
(
We are northwest of Trieste
);
Siamo a 50 chilometri da Siena
(
We're
50 kilometers away from Siena
).