The preposition "con"
The preposition con means "with." It is used exactly as it is in English to express company (who you are with) or accompaniment.
| The girl walks with her dog. | La ragazza cammina con il suo cane. |
| We go to the cinema with you. | Noi andiamo al cinema con te. |
The preposition "per"
The preposition per generally translates to "for." You will use it to indicate who something is intended for, a destination, or a duration of time (how long an action lasts).
| This article is for you. | Questo articolo è per te. |
| I work in Rome for a week. | Lavoro a Roma per una settimana. |
The preposition "su"
The preposition su means "on" or "on top of" when talking about physical placement. It can also mean "about" when describing the topic of a book, article, or conversation.
| The dog sleeps on this sofa. | Il cane dorme su questo divano. |
| I read an article about Rome. | Leggo un articolo su Roma. |
The prepositions "tra" and "fra"
Tra and fra are completely interchangeable. They both mean "between" or "among," and you can choose whichever one sounds better in a given sentence.
First, they are used to describe a physical location between two or more things:
| The sofa is between the door and the window. | Il divano è tra la porta e la finestra. |
| We walk among these trees. | Camminiamo fra questi alberi. |
Second, when used with time, tra and fra mean "in" (meaning an event will happen a certain amount of time from now).
| We leave for Rome in an hour. | Noi partiamo per Roma fra un'ora. |
| They leave in a week. | Loro partono fra una settimana. |
Putting it all together
Once you know these simple prepositions, you can easily string them together to give vivid, detailed descriptions of where things are happening, why, and with whom.
| I walk on this floor with the new shoes for the party. | Cammino su questo pavimento con le scarpe nuove per la festa. |
| I put the carpet on this floor between the table and the sofa. | Metto il tappeto su questo pavimento tra il tavolo e il divano. |
