Expressions of Place in Italian

What are they and why do we need to know them?

These expressions can be adverbs, so they can be  words that we need to be more specific about a certain place in which and action takes place. They will indicate the position of a thing or a person in a place or in relation to another person or object.

These are the expressions of place in Italian… and yes!

You can download this fun little chart for free by clicking on this link! You will also download some free exercises!!! :)

Extra expressions of place

• Dentro - inside
• Fuori - outside
• Sopra - on top / over
• Sotto - at the bottom / under
• Dietro - behind
• Davanti - in front 
• Vicino - near
• Accanto - next to
• Lontano - far
• Intorno - around
• Su - up 
• Giù - down

Be careful because very often the expressions of place are formed with the simple prepositions A and DA.

So in this case you have to be careful to match gender and numbers of the noun that follows.

This is the case for

• davanti a  in front of  — Siamo davanti al bar 
• you have the noun bar which is singular and masculine, so it’s article is IL BAR. The expression is DAVANTI A so you will merge A + IL which will give you AL: Davanti al bar
• di fronte a - in front of - La farmacia è di fronte alla banca
• lontano da - far from - La scuola è lontana dalla chiesa
• In mezzo a - in the middle of - Ti aspetto in mezzo alla piazza

if you need to review the these little words I suggest you check out my video on articulated prepositions and download the chart with all the possibile options

Video on Articulated Prepositions in Italian

Extra info that I want to give you is with the words QUI, QUA, lì, là

Qui - qua = here / lì - là = there

• Qui indicates a very specific place close to the person who is talking:
  • Vieni qui! Come here.. like next to me
• Qua indicates a more generic place close to the person who is talking:
  • Vieni qua! Come here… somewhere close to me

These words can be followed by the expression of place for example:

• Qui sotto - under here
• Qui sopra - over here
• Quaggiù - under here
• Qua sopra - over here
• Qua sotto - under here

Same situation for Lì and là. BE CAREFUL ALWAYS WRITE THEM WITH AN ACCENT!!

• Lì will indicate a specific place far away from the person speaking or listening
  • Dove sono le chiavi? Sono lì (where are the key? Over there)
• Là will indicate a generic place far away from the person speaking or listening
  • Dove sono le chiavi? Sono da qualche parte là (where are the keys? Somewhere over there)

With là you can also have laggiù and lassù

laggiù indicates down there and lassù up there.

Check out the download and do some exercises on these to master them!