Question 1

Doesn't da mean "from"? Why does da lui mean "at his place"?

Accepted Answer

While da often means "from", when you put it right before a person (like a name or a pronoun like lui), it means "at that person's house" or business. So, da lui means "at his place", just as da me would mean "at my place" or dal medico means "at the doctor's office".

Question 2

What kind of pronoun is lui in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

It is a "tonic" or strong pronoun. In Italian, whenever a pronoun comes directly after a preposition (like da, con, or per), you must use this strong form. For "him" and "her", the tonic forms are lui and lei, which happen to look exactly the same as the subject words for "he" and "she".

Question 3

Why is mangiamo translated as "we are eating" instead of "we eat"?

Accepted Answer

The regular Italian present tense covers both English forms. Mangiamo can mean either "we eat" or "we are eating" depending on the context. Because the sentence is about a specific plan for oggi (today), "we are eating" is just the most natural way to translate it into English here.

Question 4

Where is the word for "we" in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

It is built right into the verb! The -iamo ending on mangiamo tells you exactly who is eating. You could say Oggi noi mangiamo da lui, but Italians usually drop the subject pronoun (noi) unless they want to add special emphasis.

Oggi mangiamo da lui.

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