Learn Italian: Vengo dal nord. - I come from the north.

It is a combination of the preposition da (from) and the masculine singular definite article il (the). When they sit next to each other, da + il merge to become the articulated preposition dal.

Both di and da can mean "from". Why do we use da here instead of di?

We use da with the verb venire (to come) to show physical movement from a place or to express origin. You generally only use di to mean "from" when you are using the verb essere (to be) to state your home city, like in Sono di Roma (I am from Rome).

Why do we need the article "the" here? Why not just say da nord?

In Italian, compass directions like nord (north), sud (south), est (east), and ovest (west) are treated as nouns that require a definite article. Since nord is masculine, we need il, which forces us to combine da + il into dal.

Is vengo a regular verb?