ABSTRACT
Prepositions are words like at, by, in, to which are used to express a wide variety of relationships, the most common of which is location in time and place: in an hour, at two o'clock, by midnight, in the drawer, at/to the station. Other relationships include possession, purpose, cause and manner. Prepositions can be one word, sometimes two and occasionally a whole phrase. This chapter deals with prepositions used with nouns, pronouns or adjectives. Prepositions often acquire different meanings in different contexts and have a large number of uses that can vary, especially in conversational Italian. Their use depends on a number of things, including the region someone is from and the differing degrees of formality or informality being used. Prepositions are invariable, although some modify their form when combined with the definite article. Unlike in English, prepositions almost always precede nouns and noun phrases, including interrogative and relative phrases.
