15.3 Italian prepositions part 4

One may believe that in the case of casa / home, scuola / school, teatro / theater the stress is on the function but not the individual building, but that's not the case.

Sono a casa.
  Vado a casa.
=> I am at home. / I go home.
  Sono a scuola.
  Vado a scuola.
=> I am at school. / I go to school.
  Sono a teatro.
  Vado a teatro.
=> I am at the theater. / I go to the theater.

In this group there are as well some nouns where the article is to be used. There is no rule for that, these nouns have to be learned by heart. If you clique several times on the loudspeaker you will learn them automatically.

Vado al cinema.
  Sono al cinema.
=> I go to the cinema. / I am at the cinema.
  Vado alla stazione.
  Sono alla stazione.
=> I go to the train station. / I am at the train station.
  Vado al parco.
  Sono al parco.
=> I go to the parc. / I am at the parc.
  Vado alla fermata dell' autobus.
  Sono alla fermata dell' autobus.
=> I go to the bus station. / I am at the bus station.

You have no chance to remember all these rules and the exception to the rules. It is much easier to click on the loudspeaker and to hear the sentences several times. That way you learn it automatically. Besides that in the table of content at the end of each chapter you have a zip file. You can download this zip file and unpack it. Then, you can put it on any device able to play mp3 files. If you hear this file several times you will automatically learn a lot of things by heart without any effort.

See below a summary of what we have seen until know.

1. Countries / regions always with in (or nei, negli, nelle in plural). No difference between a movement to a place and residence at a place.

Vado in Italia. / Sono in Italia.
Vado in città. / Sono in città.
  2. Cities with a. No difference between movement to a place and residence at a place.

Vado a Roma. / Sono a Roma.
  3. If the stress is on the function and not on the building. No difference between movement to a place and residence at a place. In both cases it is in. (+article in some cases (nel, nella, nell' etc.))

Vado in chiesa. / Sono nella chiesa.
  4. If the stress is on the concrete building, not on the function: movement with a + article (al, alla, all' etc.), residence with in + article (nel, nella, nell' etc.)

Devo andare all' ospedale Santa Barbara. / Sono nell' ospedale Santa Barbara.
  5. In the case of casa, scuola, teatro the stress is on the function ( so there is a contradiction to 3) however the preposition is a for movement and residence

Vado a scuola. / Sono a scuola.
  6. Like 5 but for unknown reasons with article

Vado al cinema. / Sono al cinema.






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