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L'uomo dai baffi e dagli occhiali ha uno sguardo stanco.

L'uomo dai baffi e dagli occhiali ha uno sguardo stanco.
The man with the mustache and glasses has a tired look.
From Lesson 260:Describing physical features (dal, dagli)·Italian

Questions & Answers about L'uomo dai baffi e dagli occhiali ha uno sguardo stanco.

Why does this sentence use dai and dagli instead of con i and con gli to mean 'with'?
While con means 'with' in a general sense, Italian uses the preposition da combined with a definite article to describe someone's physical characteristics, accessories, or distinctive features. It translates closer to 'the man characterized by the mustache'.
Why is it dai baffi (plural) when he only has one mustache?
In Italian, a mustache is almost always referred to in the plural form, i baffi (literally 'the mustaches'). Because of this, the preposition da combines with the plural article i to form dai.
Could we just say dai baffi e occhiali instead of repeating the preposition?
No, in Italian you usually need to repeat the preposition and the article before each noun in a list. Furthermore, baffi takes the article i (making dai) but occhiali starts with a vowel and takes the article gli, so you must specifically use dagli for the second item.
Why is the article uno used in uno sguardo instead of just un?
You must use uno because sguardo is a masculine noun starting with an 's' followed by a consonant ('g'). This is a good reminder that this rule also applies to words starting with 'z', 'gn', or 'ps' (like uno zaino).

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