Learn Italian: Mio padre torna dal mare oggi. - My father returns from the sea today.

dal is an articulated preposition made by combining da (from) + il (the). Because mare (sea) is a masculine singular noun starting with a consonant, it takes the definite article il. When you put da and il together, they merge into dal.

The current lesson also covers di. Why do we use dal (from da) here instead of del (from di)?

We use da here because it expresses movement away from a place, which perfectly matches the verb torna (returns). If we used del (which comes from di + il), it would mean "of the sea," indicating possession or description rather than physical movement from a location.

Why is it just Mio padre and not Il mio padre?

Normally, Italian requires a definite article before a possessive word (like il mio libro for "my book"). However, there is a major exception for singular, close family members. Words like padre (father), madre (mother), or fratello (brother) drop the article, so we just say mio padre.

Could I put oggi at the beginning of the sentence?