Il giovedì l’uomo passa dal mercato prima di tornare a casa.

In Italian, a day of the week with the definite article often has a habitual meaning.

So il giovedì usually means on Thursdays / every Thursday, not just one specific Thursday.

• Giovedì vado al mercato. = I’m going to the market on Thursday. / On Thursday I go to the market.
• Il giovedì vado al mercato. = I go to the market on Thursdays.

So in your sentence, Il giovedì suggests a repeated routine.

Because uomo begins with a vowel, the singular definite article becomes l’.

So:

• il libro
• il ragazzo
• l’uomo
• l’amico

This is a normal rule in Italian: before many singular nouns beginning with a vowel, the article is written as l’.

Passa is the third-person singular present indicative of passare.

Even though English often uses he goes, he stops by, or he passes, Italian commonly uses the present tense for:

• actions happening now
• regular habits
• general facts

Because the sentence has Il giovedì, the present tense here describes a habitual action:

• l’uomo passa = the man goes by / stops by / passes

So the idea is that this is something he regularly does on Thursdays.

Here, passare is not just the literal to pass. In the expression passare da + place, it often means:

• to go by
• to stop by
• to pass through/by

So passa dal mercato suggests that the man goes by the market or stops at the market on the way somewhere else.

This is a very common use of passare in Italian.

Dal is a contraction of da + il.

• da + il = dal
• da + lo = dallo
• da + la = dalla
• da + i = dai
• da + gli = dagli
• da + le = dalle

In this sentence, mercato is masculine singular, so da + il mercato becomes dal mercato.

With passare, da is often used to mean by or via a place:

• passare dal mercato
• passare da casa
• passare dal medico

After prima di, Italian uses the infinitive when the subject is the same.

So:

• prima di tornare = before returning
• prima di mangiare = before eating
• prima di uscire = before going out

That is why you get tornare, not torna.

A useful comparison:

• Prima di tornare a casa, passa dal mercato.
  = The same person does both actions.

But if the subject changes, Italian usually uses prima che + subjunctive:

• Prima che lui torni a casa...
  = Before he returns home...

Because a casa is a fixed expression meaning home.

Italian usually says:

• andare a casa = to go home
• tornare a casa = to return home
• essere a casa = to be at home

Using an article here would usually change the meaning and sound more like to the house/building, not home.

So:

• tornare a casa = return home
• tornare alla casa = return to the house

Yes, Italian word order is fairly flexible.

The sentence begins with Il giovedì because the speaker is putting the time expression first. This is very natural, especially when describing a routine.

You could also say:

• L’uomo passa dal mercato il giovedì prima di tornare a casa.

That is also grammatical, but it sounds slightly different in emphasis. Starting with Il giovedì highlights when this happens.

So the original sentence is natural and emphasizes the weekly habit from the start.

Because the stress falls on the final syllable: gio-ve-DÌ.

In Italian, words stressed on the final vowel are usually written with an accent mark:

• città
• perché
• così
• giovedì

The accent helps show both the pronunciation and the correct spelling.

Yes, dal mercato contains the definite article il, so literally it is from/by the market rather than a market.

In practice, Italian often uses the definite article for familiar everyday places, especially when the place is understood from context. So il mercato may mean:

• the local market
• the usual market
• the market being talked about

This does not always sound as strongly specific as English the market does, but grammatically it is definite.