Learn about many ways you can employ the simple Italian preposition da, including to talk about direction, time and place
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Marco: Hello, and welcome to the ItalianPOD101.com , the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Italian! |
| Consuelo: I'm Consuelo, and thanks again for being here with us for this Newbie Series S2 lesson. |
| Marco: In this lesson, we will continue our study of Italian simple prepositions, delving into da. This conversation takes place in John's car. |
| Consuelo: The conversation is between John and Laura. The speakers are friends; therefore, the speakers will be speaking informally. |
| Marco: |
| Consuelo: |
| Marco: Now, if you're listening on an iPod... |
| Consuelo: or an iTouch or iPhone... |
| Marco: click the center button of the iPod or tap the screen on an iTouch or iPhone, to see the notes for this lesson while you listen! |
| Consuelo: Read along, while you listen. |
| Marco: This technique will help you remember faster! Okay... |
| Marco: Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| John: È incredibile il traffico di stasera! |
| Laura: Veramente! Siamo partiti da un'ora da casa mia. |
| John: Ma siamo ancora molto lontani dal cinema. |
| Laura: Speriamo di farcela, altrimenti dove andiamo? |
| John: Al massimo andiamo da Martina, cosa ne dici? |
| Laura: Sì, per me va bene. |
| John: OK, va bene dai, dalle un colpo di telefono. |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| John: È incredibile il traffico di stasera! |
| Laura: Veramente! Siamo partiti da un'ora da casa mia. |
| John: Ma siamo ancora molto lontani dal cinema. |
| Laura: Speriamo di farcela, altrimenti dove andiamo? |
| John: Al massimo andiamo da Martina, cosa ne dici? |
| Laura: Sì, per me va bene. |
| John: OK, va bene dai, dalle un colpo di telefono. |
| English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| John: È incredibile il traffico di stasera! |
| Marco: Tonight's traffic is incredible! |
| Laura: Veramente! Siamo partiti da un'ora da casa mia. |
| Marco: Really! We left my place an hour ago. |
| John: Ma siamo ancora molto lontani dal cinema. |
| Marco: But we're still far from the cinema. |
| Laura: Speriamo di farcela, altrimenti dove andiamo? |
| Marco: I hope we can make it, otherwise where should we go? |
| John: Al massimo andiamo da Martina, cosa ne dici? |
| Marco: At most, we could go to Martina's place, what do you think? |
| Laura: Sì, per me va bene. |
| Marco: Yes, that's okay for me. |
| John: OK, va bene dai, dalle un colpo di telefono. |
| Marco: Okay, fine, please give her a ring then. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Marco: Cristiano, what about being trapped in traffic jams in Italy? |
| Cris: That's something you never want to happen if you're in Italy! |
| Marco: What about your hometown, Rome? |
| Cris: In a metropolis with small streets like Rome, big traffic jams could block the whole city easily. |
| Marco: Do you remember something like that happening recently? |
| Cris: Yes, of course I do! |
| Marco: When was it? |
| Cris: The last big traffic jam that I remember being in was during the night of the World Cup final. That was really something. |
| Marco: Well, Italy was the winner, right? |
| Cris: Yes. The city was almost paralyzed for the celebrations, and the people of Rome flooded the whole town. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| : The first word we shall see is: |
| Consuelo: traffico [natural native speed] |
| Marco: traffic |
| Consuelo: traffico [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: traffico [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: lontano [natural native speed] |
| Marco: far, distant |
| Consuelo: lontano [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: lontano [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: simile [natural native speed] |
| Marco: similar, alike |
| Consuelo: simile [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: simile [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: vedere [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to look, to watch, to see |
| Consuelo: vedere [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: vedere [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: altrimenti [natural native speed] |
| Marco: otherwise |
| Consuelo: altrimenti [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: altrimenti [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: colpo [natural native speed] |
| Marco: blow, shot, knock, hit |
| Consuelo: colpo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: colpo [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Marco: Let's have a closer look at the usuage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Marco: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases we learned in this lesson. The phrase we'll look at is... |
| Cris: ""dare un colpo di telefono"" |
| Marco: In English, the literal translation could mean something like ""to hit someone with the phone."" |
| Cris: So do Italians hit people with the phone when calling them? |
| Marco: No way! It's just an expression! |
| Cris: So in English, it would be ""to ring someone."" |
| Marco: Well also in English it looks strange, right? |
| Cris: What do you mean? |
| Marco: Well you can't ring a person, he or she isn't a bell that you can ring! |
| Cris: Still they seem to be more polite. We just hit someone! |
| Marco: We actually don't hit anyone! It's just a figure of speech. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Cris: Let's take a look at today's lesson. |
| Marco: Today we are going to continue with the study of the |
| Cris: ""preposizioni semplici"" |
| Marco: ""simple prepositions"" |
| Cristiano: The focus of this lesson is on the Italian preposition ""da."" |
| Marco: The simple preposition ""da"" is used as follows… |
| when associated with verbs related to movement, it's used to express provenance. For example… |
| Cris: ""Siamo partiti da Milano ieri sera."" |
| Marco: ""We left from Milan yesterday evening."" |
| Cris: ""Lucia è tornata da Roma."" |
| Marco: ""Lucia came back from Rome."" |
| Marco: The preposition ""da"" is used to express the amount of time that passed since the beginning of an action. Please note that in this case in English we would employ progressive, “-ing” tenses. For instance… |
| Cris: ""Studio chitarra da sei anni."" |
| Marco: I've been studying guitar for six years. |
| Cris: ""Vivo a Milano da due mesi."" |
| Marco: I've been living in Milan for two months. |
| Marco: In passive sentences, ""da"" is used to express the agent. That is the person/object the action is performed by. For example... |
| Cris: ""Questo tavolo è stato realizzato da mio padre."" |
| Marco: ""This table was realized by my father."" |
| Cris: ""Lo studio è fatto da famosi economisti."" |
| Marco: ""The survey is done by eminent economists."" |
| Marco: Another use of the preposition da is when it's preceding either proper names or pronouns. ""Da"" indicates the place, the location where the action is performed, and to which the following noun/pronoun refers to. For example… |
| Cris: ""Ci vediamo da me alle sei?"" |
| Marco: ""Shall we meet at my place at six?"" |
| Cris: ""Ho dimenticato le chiavi da te."" |
| Marco: ""I forgot the keys at your place."" |
| Marco: In certain comparisons and similarities, ""da"" expresses the likeness or kindred nature of the term of comparison. Note that these expressions don't always translate literally in English. For example… |
| Cris: ""Non è da te avere così paura."" |
| Marco: ""It doesn't suit you to be so fearful."" |
| Cris: ""I tuoi compagni non hanno reagito da veri amici."" |
| Marco: ""Your fellows didn't act like true friends."" |
Outro |
| Marco: That just about does it for today. |
| Consuelo: Ready to test what you just learned? |
| Marco: Make this lesson's vocabulary stick by using lesson specific flashcards in the learning center. |
| Consuelo: There is a reason everyone uses flashcards... |
| Marco: They work... |
| Consuelo: They really do help memorization. |
| Marco: You can get the flashcards for this lesson at |
| Consuelo: ItalianPod101.com. |
| Marco: Okay.... |
| Marco: Arrivederci! |
| Consuelo: A presto!" |
23 Comments
HideCiao Roberto,
sono stato imparando -> sto imparando
Anche in sogno puoi praticare l'italiano 😉
Thanks for studying with us!
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Sono stato imparando italiano da un mese e mezzo. Stamattina ho avuto la mia prima conversazione in italiano, con una donna bellissima.
Peccato che sia stato un sogno. 🤷♂️
Hi Shaune,
thank you for your comment. You're perfectly right, and you got the rule right. However, it's common to use "siamo partiti da un'ora" to actually mean "we've been driving (or walking, or travelling) for an hour." You could also say "siamo partiti un'ora fa" (we left an hour ago), the meaning is the same. Use "da+time" when you want to emphasize the time you've spent doing an action.
I hope this clears thing up a bit. Let us know if you still have doubts!
Sincerely,
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
The grammar explains action plus da plus time period as something that has been happening for that period of time. But the example in the dialogue uses it as an action that happened at a specific time in the past: Siamo partiti da un'ora da casa mia. We left home an hour ago. I thought an hour ago would be 'un'ora fa'.
Hi Larisa,
If the auxiliary verb is "essere" ("to be"), we need to change the past participle according to the subject.
For example, if I want to say "I left from Milan", I should say "Sono partita da Milano". "Partita" is the singular feminine form of "partito".
I hope this answers your question!
Ofelia
Team ItalianPod101.com
why 'siamo partiti' - 'siamo partito'? (the first example of using -da-)
Ciao Ken,
Good question!
"Realizzare" in certain cases is a false friend because in Italian it can also mean "to put into reality/effect (after planning) something".
E.g., "realizzare un progetto", "to put into reality a project",
"realizzare una casa", "to build a home"
"realizzare un'opera d'arte", "to create a work of art"
Grazie e a presto!
Ofelia
Team ItalianPod101.com
Wow! I am so fascinated by diction. In the sample sentences: Questo tavolo è stato realizzato da mio padre. Your literal interpretation: "This table was realized by my father". I am puzzled as to why the verb is "realizzato" and not "costruito", or "comprato" "prenotato". The dictionaries I checked (4 of them) did NOT have "purchased" or "built" "or reserved" as synonyms for "realizzato". In English, we "realize" a dream, a goal, an idea, or a concept -- but a "table" -- most awkward. What is the English meaning that was intended? I still find "diction" to be very difficult. Native speakers can tell within seconds if you are a non-native speaker simply by the diction and syntax.
Ciao Edmar,
Bene! You should say: quando stavo ancora studiando (stavo is in the past while sto is for the present).
well done!
a presto.
Chiara
Team ItalianPod101.com
Grazie mille davvero.
Il mio insegnante quando sto ancora studiando piano lezione dava composizioni semplificate di Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven e di altri.
When I was still taking piano lesson, my teacher used to give me simplified compositions of Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven and others.
Of course, I could not play the originals for they were difficult to play. I studied just for more than two years and now playing the church organ.