When talking about traveling long distances, waiting until specific hours, or pushing your physical endurance, you need to express limits.
To express a spatial limit ("up to" a place) or a temporal limit ("until" a time), Italian uses the compound preposition fino a.
When followed by a city, a specific time like mezzanotte (midnight), or an adverb like tardi (late), you simply use fino a without any changes.
| We covered this boring stretch up to Rome. | Abbiamo percorso questo tratto noioso fino a Roma. |
| I am staying awake until midnight, I haven't exhausted my energy yet. | Rimango sveglio fino a mezzanotte, non ho ancora esaurito le energie. |
| They ran until late to improve their physical resistance. | Hanno corso fino a tardi per migliorare la resistenza fisica. |
Combining with Definite Articles
Often, you will talk about pushing yourself to "the" limit or "the" point of exhaustion. When the noun for your limit requires a definite article (il, lo, la, l'), the a in fino a must combine with it, just like the regular preposition a does.
- a
- il = al (fino al limite)
- a
- lo = allo (fino allo sfinimento)
- a
- l' = all' (fino all'alba)
| You must push your body to the physical limit. | Devi spingere il corpo fino al limite fisico. |
| Marco pushes his body to the point of exhaustion. | Marco spinge il suo corpo fino allo sfinimento. |
| Nobody stayed awake until dawn. | Nessuno è rimasto sveglio fino all'alba. |
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