Prepositions: Complete Reference

This page is the single-page reference for the Italian preposition system. Every preposition, every contraction, every major use, every common pairing — on tables you can scan in five seconds. The deep treatment of each subsystem lives in its dedicated page; the links at the bottom of each section will take you there.

The Italian preposition system has three layers. The nine simple prepositions (di, a, da, in, con, su, per, tra, fra) carry the core relations — possession, direction, location, instrument, purpose. Five of them — a, da, di, in, su — fuse with the definite article into one word, giving the 35-cell contraction grid that you must memorize before anything else. On top sits a finite list of locuzioni prepositive (multi-word prepositional phrases like davanti a, vicino a, prima di) that handle finer spatial and temporal relations. Above all of this hovers the lexical-specificity problem: each verb, noun, and adjective chooses its own preposition, and you must learn those pairings one by one.

1. The nine simple prepositions (preposizioni semplici)

The starting point. Memorize this list as a single unit; every Italian speaker carries it in their head.

Tra and fra are interchangeable — pick whichever sounds smoother next to neighboring sounds. Tra fratelli is fine; fra fratelli repeats fr-fr and most speakers avoid it. Fra tre giorni avoids tra-tre. The choice is acoustic, not semantic.

2. The contraction grid (preposizioni articolate)

Five of the nine prepositions — a, da, di, in, su — must fuse with a following definite article. The fusion is mandatory; a il libro is as wrong as ofthe in English.

Optional contractions with con (with): the modern survivors are col (con + il) and coi (con + i). Both common in everyday speech and fixed expressions: col tempo (with time), coi miei amici (with my friends). The historical collo, colla, cogli, colle are archaic and reserved for 19th-century literature; modern Italian writes con lo, con la, con gli, con le as two words.

No contractions with per, tra, fra. They always stay separate from the article. Pel, pella, pegli are archaic. Per il libro, tra il libro e la penna, fra le braccia — never tral or fragli.

For the full treatment, see Preposizioni Articolate.

3. Locuzioni prepositive (multi-word prepositional phrases)

Italian builds spatial, temporal, and causal relations through phrases of the form adverb / noun + a / di / da. The trailing simple preposition then contracts with a following article as usual.

Spatial

Temporal

Reason / cause

Substitution / accompaniment

The "optional di" pattern with dietro, sopra, sotto, dentro, fuori, dopo follows a consistent rule: before a noun the di is usually omitted (dietro la porta, behind the door); before a disjunctive pronoun the di is required (dietro di me, behind me). Bare adverb + noun, but adverb + di + pronoun.

4. Major uses by preposition

A compact map of what each preposition does, ranked by frequency.

Di — possession, origin, topic, partitive, more

See The Preposition Di: Overview, Di with Verbs, and Di with Nouns and Adjectives.

A — direction, location, time, recipient

See The Preposition A: Overview, A with Verbs, A for Places.

Da — origin, agent, duration, "at someone's place"

See The Preposition Da: Overview, Da: Time and Duration, Da: At Someone's Place, Da: Agent in Passive, Da with Infinitive: Purpose.

In — interior location, countries, transport, time spans

Per — purpose, destination, duration, exchange

Con — accompaniment, instrument, manner

Su — surface, topic, approximation

Tra / fra — between, among, future point

See Tra and Fra and In vs A for Time.

5. Verb-preposition pairings (high-frequency)

The pairings you can't predict — every Italian verb chooses its own preposition, and you must memorize them.

Verbs + a + infinitive

Verbs + di + infinitive

Verbs + bare infinitive (no preposition)

Verbs with other prepositions

6. Place rules — which preposition with which kind of place

The geographic preposition system is rule-based and predictable. Master the rules and the small list of fixed-expression exceptions.

7. Time rules — full inventory

For the deep treatment, see In vs A for Time and Da: Time and Duration.

8. Origin: di vs da

The two prepositions that both translate as "from" split cleanly:

Sono di Roma answers "where are you from?" in the sense of identity and roots. Vengo da Roma answers "where are you coming from now?" in the sense of physical trajectory. Get this distinction right and you will sound less like a tourist.

9. The pattern: qualcosa / niente / qualcuno + di + adjective

A small but obligatory pattern: when an indefinite pronoun (qualcosa, niente, qualcuno, nessuno) is modified by an adjective, Italian inserts di between them.

The adjective stays in the masculine singular, regardless of any later noun. This pattern has no English equivalent — English just says "something good," not "*something of good."

See Indefinite pronouns: qualcuno, nessuno, qualcosa, niente.

10. Common errors — consolidated

The most expensive transfer errors English speakers make, gathered from across the system.

11. The full system on a single grid

One last summary — the architecture as a teacher might draw it on a whiteboard:

This is the entire architecture of the Italian preposition system. The rest of the prepositions section walks you through each piece in detail — start with Di Overview, the most versatile preposition, and work outward.