Breakdown of Lo conosco dall'infanzia.
conoscere
to meet, to know
lo
him/it (direct object)
da
since, for (duration)
l'infanzia
the childhood (f)
Questions & Answers about Lo conosco dall'infanzia.
Why does the English translation say 'have known' but the Italian sentence uses the present tense conosco?
In Italian, when an action started in the past and is still happening right now, you use the present tense combined with the preposition da. Because you still know him today, the literal Italian structure is 'I know him since childhood'.
Why is it dall'infanzia instead of just da infanzia?
The preposition da combines with the definite article la (the) to form dalla. Because infanzia starts with a vowel, dalla drops its final vowel and adds an apostrophe to become dall'. Italian usually requires definite articles before abstract nouns like childhood.
What is the word Lo doing at the beginning of the sentence?
Could I use so (from sapere) here instead of conosco?