Comparison of Italian and Spanish
Prepositions
The list of prepositions, and their uses, is fairly similar in
both languages. However:
- Italian has both di and da, whereas Spanish only has de.
Compare Il padre di Pietro with El padre de Pedro, and
Il treno viene da Londra with El tren viene de Londres.
- On the other hand, Spanish has both para and por, whereas
Italian only has per. Compare Ti chiamo per sapere with
Te llamo para saber, and Andiamo per strada with Andamos por
la calle.
- In some cases, where Italian uses 'di', Spanish does not need a
preposition. Compare Spero di viaggiare with Espero viajar,
Penso di poterlo fare with Pienso poderlo hacer and Ha deciso
di sposarsi with Ha decidido casarse.
- Similarly, there are cases where Spanish needs 'de' when Italian doesn't
need a preposition. Compare sono sicuro che with estoy seguro de
que.
- There are other cases in which one language needs a preposition
but the other does not. For example, compare siamo in cinque with
somos cinco.
- There are cases where each language requires a preposition, but not
the same one. Examples: interessarsi di qualcosa/interesarse en algo,
qualcosa da bere/algo para beber, penso a te/pienso en ti,
per forza/a la fuerza.
- Care must be taken with sentences beginning with 'I went to' or 'I live in'.
In Italian we have Sono andato a Parigi, Sono andato in Francia,
Vivo a Parigi, Vivo in Francia. In Spanish, we have
Fui a París, Fui a Francia, Vivo en París,
Vivo en Francia. (The Spanish system is similar to the English one.)
- The Spanish sobre can mean either su (on) or sopra
(above) depending on the context.
- Spanish has the so-called 'personal a'. This means that, when a direct
object is a person, the preposition 'a' has to be inserted. Compare Vedo
Paulo with Veo a Pablo. Remember this only occurs with persons, so
for example Leggo il libro becomes simply Leo el libro.
- The 'personal a' causes some difficulties with object pronouns (see
the next section).
- In Italian there exist many expressions in which 'di' occurs before an
infinitive, as in Penso di averlo fatto,
Mi ha chiesto di venire, Dille di scrivermi. This construction
can be used in Spanish only when the infinitive refers to the subject of the
sentence. That is, one can say Pienso de haberlo hecho, but one would
have to say Me pidió que viniera and Dile que me escriba.
A big difference between Italian and Spanish is that Italian has a large
number of "articulated prepositions". This means that, when a preposition is
followed by a definite article, the two words are often merged into a single
one. The full list is given in the following table.
|
| il | lo | la | i | gli | le |
|---|
| a | al | allo | alla | ai | agli | alle |
| di | del | dello | della | dei | degli | delle |
| da | dal | dallo | dalla | dai | dagli | dalle |
| in | nel | nello | nella | nei | negli | nelle |
| su | sul | sullo | sulla | sui | sugli | sulle |
Spanish, by contrast, only has "a+el = al" and "de+el = del". So, for example, "I went
to the children's house" becomes "Sono andato alla casa dei bambini" in Italian, but is
simply "Fui a la casa de los niños" in Spanish
Last updated June 2024.
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