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Italian Prepositions and Their Contractions: Di, A, Da, In, Su

Italian prepositions explained: what di, a, da, in, su, con, per and tra mean, how they fuse with articles into del, al, nel and sul, and when they don't.

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Key takeaways

  • Five Italian prepositions, di, a, da, in and su, must fuse with a following definite article: di + il is del, in + la is nella.
  • With seven article forms each, those five give 35 contracted forms, all built on the same pattern.
  • Con and per have optional contractions; Wikipedia notes that apart from col and coi these are archaic and very rare.
  • Tra and fra mean the same and Wikipedia notes they are often chosen for how they sound.
  • Da covers 'from', 'since', 'by' and 'at someone's place' (dal dottore); di covers 'of', possession and 'than'.

Italian prepositions are short words with wide meanings, and five of them refuse to stand next to a definite article without merging into it. Wikipedia's Italian grammar article describes a closed class of basic prepositions: di, a, da, in, su, con, per, tra and fra. Learn what each one covers and how the merged forms are built, and a large share of everyday sentences opens up. This explainer takes the meanings first, then the contractions, then the exceptions.

What the nine basic prepositions mean

Wikipedia's tables gloss them like this, and Wiktionary's entries fill in the main uses.

Preposition Core meanings Example
di of, 's, from (origin), than la coda del cane, the dog's tail
a to, at vive a Roma, she lives in Rome
da from, since, by, at someone's place andare dal dottore, to go to the doctor's
in in, to, into, by (transport) in autobus, by bus
su on, about, out of sulla tavola, on the table
con with con il or, optionally, col
per for, through per strada, a fixed phrase with no article
tra / fra between, among tra fratelli, among brothers

Some uses reach beyond the English glosses. Wiktionary gives di for comparison, Jack è più alto di sua moglie, "Jack is taller than his wife", and for "some" with the article: Vuoi dell'acqua?, "Would you like some water?". It gives su for proportions: un europeo su cinque, "one European in five". And in covers shops and transport: Sono andato in panetteria, "I went to the bakery", and Vado a scuola in autobus, "I go to school by bus".

Di or da: two ways to say "from"

The two look alike and both can translate "from". Wiktionary's entries separate them.

Di is mostly about belonging and description: possession (L'ira di Apollo), authorship (la Divina Commedia di Dante), topic (libri di matematica), material (una collana d'oro), and origin with essere: Lei è di Monreale, "She's from Monreale".

Da is about starting points and functions. Wiktionary lists:

  • from a place or source: dalla terra alla luna
  • since: da quando?, "since when?"
  • at or to someone's place: da Giovanni, "at Giovanni's"
  • by an agent: saccheggiato dai ladri, "looted by thieves"
  • purpose: una macchina da scrivere, a typewriter, literally "a machine for writing"
  • necessity before an infinitive: un bel libro da leggere, "a nice book to read"

The 35 contracted forms

Wikipedia states that in modern Italian di, a, da, in and su must combine with a definite article placed after them. The result is one word.

il lo la l' i gli le
di del dello della dell' dei degli delle
a al allo alla all' ai agli alle
da dal dallo dalla dall' dai dagli dalle
in nel nello nella nell' nei negli nelle
su sul sullo sulla sull' sui sugli sulle

Read across the rows and the pattern is regular. Di becomes de- and in becomes ne-; a, da and su keep their shape. Il shrinks to -l (al, del, nel), i stays -i (ai, dei, nei), gli stays -gli (agli, negli), and lo, la, l' and le double their l (allo, della, nell', sulle).

To know which article to fuse, you need the noun's gender and its first letter, which is the job of Italian articles and gender. Five prepositions times seven articles gives 5 × 7 = 35 forms, but if you know the seven articles you are really learning five prefixes.

Taking four phrases apart

Run the table backwards on phrases quoted in Wiktionary's entries and each contraction resolves into a preposition and an article.

  1. la coda del cane, "the dog's tail": del = di + il, because cane is masculine and starts with a consonant.
  2. dalla terra alla luna, "from the Earth to the moon": dalla = da + la and alla = a + la, both feminine.
  3. Il libro è sulla tavola, "the book is on the table": sulla = su + la.
  4. Vuoi **dell'**acqua?, "would you like some water?": dell' = di + l', because acqua starts with a vowel.

Four phrases, five contractions, and every one of them sits in the 35-cell table above.

When there is no contraction

Several cases break the pattern.

  • Con and per have optional contractions (col, coi, pel, pei and so on). Wikipedia notes that apart from col and coi, which are occasionally used, these are archaic and very rare. Write con il and per la.
  • Tra and fra are interchangeable, Wikipedia says, often chosen by sound: tra fratelli, but fra i tralicci to avoid tra tra-.
  • No article at all. Wikipedia notes that, under the influence of Latin, which had no articles, some fixed phrases drop the article: a capo, da capo, di colpo, in bicicletta, per strada.
  • Su di before pronouns. Su becomes su di before a pronoun: su di te, "on you".
  • Su di before u. Some speakers also say su di before a word starting with u, as in su di un cavallo; Wikipedia notes grammarians regard this as incorrect.

Learning prepositions in context

Learn Italian for Beginners teaches articles and sentence structure through examples and includes sentence-building exercises. It is one of our language-learning apps. For the verbs that sit around these phrases, read Italian verb conjugation basics, and for numbers that often follow di and da, see Italian numbers.

Good to know

Frequently asked questions

Which Italian prepositions combine with the article?
Di, a, da, in and su must combine with a following definite article, giving forms such as del, al, dal, nel and sul. Con and per have optional combined forms, but Wikipedia notes that apart from col and coi these are archaic and very rare. Tra and fra do not need to combine.
Why is it del and not di il?
Because in modern Italian the contraction is compulsory: di + il always becomes del, and di + la becomes della. The vowel of the preposition changes too, so in + il is nel and in + i is nei.
What is the difference between di and da in Italian?
Di mainly marks possession and description: la coda del cane, 'the dog's tail'. It can also mean 'from' for origin, as in è di Monreale. Da marks movement or distance from a place, time since ('da quando?'), the agent ('by'), purpose (macchina da scrivere) and someone's place: andare dal dottore.
Is there a difference between tra and fra?
No difference in meaning. Wikipedia's Italian grammar article says the two are interchangeable in modern Italian and are often chosen for euphony, to avoid repeating sounds: tra fratelli but fra i tralicci.

Sources

  1. Italian grammar: Prepositions (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
  2. da (opens in a new tab)Wiktionary — accessed
  3. di (opens in a new tab)Wiktionary — accessed
  4. in (opens in a new tab)Wiktionary — accessed
  5. su (opens in a new tab)Wiktionary — accessed

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