Prepositions are words that placed in front of nouns, adjectives, pronouns, adverbs, and verbs in the infinitive to connect them and relate them in various ways.
- La macchina di Riccardo è qui.
- Riccardo’s car is here.
(Di) unites the car (macchina) to Riccardo and serves to indicate who is the owner of the car (macchina).
- Ricardo abita in una casa tra i boschi.
- Ricardo lives in a house in the woods.
(in) unites the verb to live (abitare) with the house (casa) and indicates where Riccardo lives.
(tra) connects the house (casa) with the woods (boschi) and serves to indicate where the house (casa) is.
Prepositions have two different functions:
1. In simple sentence, they serve to introduce an indirect complement:
- Vado a casa (complemento di moto a luogo).
- I go home (complement of motion to place).
- Guarda sul libro di Andrea (complemento di specificazione).
- Look at Andrea’s book (complement of specification)
- Costanza sognava sempre a occhi aperti (complemento di modo).
- Costanza always dreamed with her eyes open (complement of manner)
2. In complex sentence, they serve to introduce, in an implicit form, various subordinate clauses:
- Eleonora pensa di partire domani.
- Eleonora plans to leave tomorrow.
- Si sono convinti a denunciare il sopruso.
- They convinced themselves to report the abuse.
- Ha studiato tanto per prendere il diploma a giugno.
- He studied hard to get his diploma in June.
Prepositions can be proper (proprie) and improper (improprie). Prepositional phrases (le locuzioni preposizionali) must be added to these two types.