Learn Italian: Mia nonna esce dalla chiesa. - My grandmother comes out of the church.

Mia nonna esce dalla chiesa.

My grandmother comes out of the church.

Breakdown of Mia nonna esce dalla chiesa.

mio

la nonna

grandmother

from, at (someone's place) / by (oneself), on one's own

uscire

to go out

Questions & Answers about Mia nonna esce dalla chiesa.

Why does this sentence use dalla instead of just da?

dalla is a combination of the preposition da (from) and the definite article la (the). Because chiesa (church) is feminine singular, it needs la, and in Italian, da and la always merge together into dalla.

Could I use della here instead of dalla?

No. della is made from di (of) + la (the). When you talk about exiting or coming out of a place with the verb uscire, you use da to mean 'from'. Therefore, you need dalla (from the) instead of della (of the).

Why is it Mia nonna and not La mia nonna?

Normally, Italian requires words like 'the' before possessives (as in la mia macchina for 'my car'). However, singular family members like nonna are an exception to this rule. You drop the article and just say Mia nonna.

The infinitive for 'to go out' is uscire. Why does it change to esce here?