Italian articulated prepositions

Italian articulated prepositions chart

Making up articulated prepositions is pretty easy. Take a look at the following chart.

• As you can see from the table, articulated prepositions agree in gender and number with the element they go with.
• ​To choose the article to combine with the simple preposition, you have to follow the rules of articles (see Italian definite articles).
• ​All the articulated prepositions formed with lo and la lose their ending vowels and put the apostrophe when they precede a noun beginning with a vowel.
  Examples:
  Dell'albero (Of the tree)
  Sull'altalena (On the swing)

Use of articulated prepositions

Prepositions "con", "per", "tra/fra"

As you can see from the previous table, some simple prepositions don't have their articulated form. They stand as two distinct elements:

• con lo, con la, con gli, con le
• per il, per lo, per la, per i, per gli, per le
• tra/fra il, ​tra/fra lo, ​tra/fra la, ​tra/fra i, ​tra/fra gli, ​tra/fra le

The simple preposition con sometimes combines with the articles "il" and "i" and sometimes not. 

La pasta col tonno / La pasta con il tonno
Pasta with tuna 

La bambola coi capelli biondi / La bambola con i capelli biondi
The doll with blond hair

When not to use articulated prepositions

You can not use articulated prepositions before:

• Indefinite articles
  Vado da uno psicologo
  I go see a psychologist
   
• ​Possessive + singular nouns referring to a relative
  Questo è il libro di mio padre
  This is my father's book
   
• Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns
  I prezzi di questo negozio sono alti
  The prices of this shop are very high.
   
• Personal pronouns
  Regalerò la collana a loro
  I will give the necklace to them
   
• Indefinite adjectives and pronouns
  In ogni albergo
  In every hotel
   
• Relative pronouns
  La citta` in cui abito
  The city where I live    

Articulated prepositions vs partitive articles

Articulated prepositions and partitive articles have a different function (see Italian partitive articles)

• Articulated prepositions generally add a new information about the subject.
  Il cane dei miei amici
  My friends' dog
• Partitive articles generally specify an unknown quantity.
  Dei miei amici vanno al parco
  Some of my friends go to the park​