When do you use da opposed to di?
Help!

Michael-D3
May 29, 2011

Maria-DiLorenzi
June 15, 2011
Ciao Michael,
In Italian the two words "da" and "di" can be translated in different ways depending on the contest of the sentence.
In this case I suppose that you doubt is when to use "da" and "di" speaking about where you are from.
When you use the verb "venire" (to come) you will always need to use the preposition "da" (from).
Example :
Io vengo da Parigi
Io vengo dalla Francia (=la Francia)
Please note that when "da" is followed by a name of a country (France in this case) , you will have to add the article in front of the name.
Other examples:
-Io vengo da Roma
-Io vengo dall'Italia (=l'Italia)
-Io vengo da Berlino
-Io vengo dalla Germania
Please notice that in Italian you can also say "I'm from " using the expression "Io sono di".
-sono di Roma
If you wants to say the country rather than the city where you are from, you will need to use your nationality.
Therefore the sentence will be :
-sono italiano/a (I'm Italian)
-sono tedesco/a (I'm German)
-sono australiano/a (I'm Australian)
Please remember to change the last vowel of the adjective accordingly with the gender.
I hope this helps
Ciao

Michael-D3
June 21, 2011
Thank you so much! This really helps!