First Post! Da?

[KFGKev]

Buongiorno Tutti

I am learning Italian with the open university and am enjoying it imensley. However i am struggling with much of the grammer. In my latest assingment i need to write how to book a room from between certain dates.

I want to say,

"From the 16th of July to the 23rd of July"

I belive this is

"Dal 16 luglio al 23 luglio"

However i would like to know how we distinguish between 'da'. I want it to mean 'from the' but can this not also mean 'of the' ? This is what confuses me. Do we just assume its one or the other given the sentence?

Many thanks for your help. Go easy - im only learning

[Peter]

ciao Kev, e benvenuto ad Impariamo.

As you can see I'm from down here in Sussex. It's always a pleasure to welcome other people from England, and indeed the UK.

As to your question, as you know both di and da are prepositions and if you are doing an OU course you should have a course book that explains these. Da (dal, dallo, dai, dagli, dalla, dalle) has several meanings, one of which is from. So it is 100% correct to say "Dal 16 luglio al 23 luglio".

D (del, dello, dei, degli, della, delle) like da has several meanings, one of which is of, and you could use it for example to say 'thank you for your letter of 4 May': grazie per la tua lettera del 4 maggio.

If you are looking for a good grammar book, I can recommend Modern Italian Grammar by Anna Proudfoot and Francesco Cardo.

Also, check out Prepositions under Lezioni gratuite - I think you'll find it helpful.

[KFGKev]

ciao Peter,

Many thanks for your reply.

I already have a copy of Essential Italian Grammer by Anna Proudfoot which is a very handy reference. I shall also look out for the one you have recommended.

I'll certainly have look at the prepostions section. There is so much to learn with the grammer side, hopefully it will all click into place some time. I find it a bit of mine field at the moment.

Today is the first time i have visited the site and it looks like i may be a regular visitor here in the future - hopefully i can get to a stage where i can contribute a bit also.

Grazie,

Kev

[Davide]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Prepositions are always tricky in any language because they can be so idiomatic. As Peter has said, 'da' can mean many things depending on the context, as can the other prepositions such as 'di' 'a' and 'in' and their usage doesn't always correspond to English usage. If it's the 'Andante' course you're studying, I believe they use 'Colloquial Italian' as the course book? This is a good start for a beginner.

Try not to make the mistake of 'over analysing' things - get to know the prepositions (and indeed other aspects of the grammar) from the contexts in which you meet them.

If you have questions, feel free to post them here and you'll find people here are more than willing to help.

In bocca al lupo!!

Davide