Breakdown of Il treno arriva dal centro della città.
il treno
the train
la città
the city
il centro
the center / downtown
di
of, from
arrivare
to arrive
da
from, at (someone's place) / by (oneself), on one's own
dal
from the; to/at the (da + il)
Questions & Answers about Il treno arriva dal centro della città.
How is the word dal formed in this sentence?
dal is an articulated preposition made by combining da (from) and il (the). Because centro (center) is a masculine singular noun, it takes the article il. When da and il meet, they merge into dal.
Why does the Italian sentence say della città instead of just città like in English?
Could I just say arriva da il centro instead of dal centro?
No, Italian requires you to merge prepositions like da and di with definite articles like il and la when they are right next to each other. You cannot leave them as two separate words.
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