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Breakdown of Il bambino prende un giocattolo dal cesto.
prendere
to take
il bambino
the child
il giocattolo
the toy
il cesto
the basket
dal
from
Questions & Answers about Il bambino prende un giocattolo dal cesto.
Why is prende used here?
prende is the third-person singular present indicative of the verb prendere (“to take”). It agrees with the subject il bambino (“the child”), so it means “he takes.”
Why do we have il before bambino but un before giocattolo?
il is the definite article (“the”), used for a specific known child. un is the indefinite article (“a/an”), used because the toy is not specified.
What does dal mean, and why not just da il?
dal is a contraction of the preposition da (“from”) + the definite article il (“the”). In Italian, da + il always contracts to dal.
Why is there no preposition before un giocattolo?
Prendere is a transitive verb that takes a direct object. Direct objects in Italian follow the verb without a preposition, so you say prende un giocattolo, not prende a un giocattolo.
Could you swap the order and say prende dal cesto un giocattolo?
Yes. Italian allows the adverbial phrase dal cesto to come before the object. It would sound like “From the basket, he takes a toy,” adding emphasis on the source. The neutral order is verb + object + adverbial.
How would you express “The child takes toys from the basket” (plural)?
Use the plural forms:
Il bambino prende dei giocattoli dal cesto.
Here dei is the plural masculine indefinite article before giocattoli (“toys”).
Which other prepositions contract with definite articles?
Here are some common contractions with il/lo/la/i/gli/le:
- a + il → al, a + lo → allo, a + la → alla, a + i → ai, a + gli → agli, a + le → alle
- da + il → dal, da + lo → dallo, da + la → dalla, da + i → dai, da + gli → dagli, da + le → dalle
- di + il → del, di + lo → dello, di + la → della, …
- in + il → nel, in + lo → nello, …
- su + il → sul, su + lo → sullo, …
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