Origin: coming from a place
In Italian, the preposition da is used to indicate origin. When you want to say you are coming from a city, or that something is far from a specific location, use da.
| Where are you coming from? I am coming from Naples. | Da dove vieni? Vengo da Napoli. |
| Marco is coming from Turin today. | Oggi Marco viene da Torino. |
| Is the museum far from Naples? | Il museo è lontano da Napoli? |
Going to someone's place
The preposition da has a special and very common use when combined with a person. When you use da before a person's name or a noun for a person (like a friend or a relative), it means going to or being at that person's house or workspace.
It is the Italian equivalent of saying you are going "to Luca's" or "to a relative's".
| Where are you going tonight? I am going to Luca's. | Dove vai stasera? Vado da Luca. |
| I am not going to Maria's, I am going to a relative's. | Non vado da Maria, vado da un parente. |
You will often see da paired with the verb passare to mean "to drop by" someone's place.
| Tomorrow we are dropping by a friend's. | Domani passiamo da un amico. |
Receiving and learning from people
Just as da means "from" a location, it also means "from" a person. You will use it when talking about learning from someone or receiving something from them.
| I learn a lot from you. | Imparo molto da te. |
| We are receiving a gift from Marco. | Riceviamo un regalo da Marco. |
Putting it together
You can seamlessly combine da with the prepositions you already know to add more detail to your sentences.
| We are going to a relative in Milan. | Andiamo da un parente a Milano. |