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  15.4.2 exercise 2: The preposition a to designate a movement towards a place

In the case of cities, countries and regions there is no distinction between the movement and the residence at a place.

In the case of countries and regions in is to be used in both cases (Vado in Italia / Sono in Italia) in the case of cities the preposition a is used in both cases (Vado a Roma / Sono a Roma).


For the generic nouns city, country, region the same rule applies (Vado in città / Sono in città).

In all other cases in is only used when we speak about the residence in some place.


But if we talk about a movement we have to distinguish. If the stress in on the function of a building (city hall, church, train station etc.) the movement is to be described with in (Vado in municipio / I go to the city hall).

But if the stress is on a concrete building, this happens for instance if it is described more in detail, the movement is described with the preposition a (Vado al municipio di Senigallia per parlare con il Sindaco / I go to the city hall of Senigallia to talk with the mayor).

Some nouns doesn' t fit in this rule. In the case of casa / home, scuola / school, università / university, parco / parc, teatro / theater the stress in on the function and not on the building ( so the movement should be described with in following the rules above), but nevertheless we say vado al teatro / I go to the theater and Sono a casa / I am at home. In simple terms: Casa (in the sense of at home), parco, teatro, università works the same way as cities.

exercise 2: Select the right preposition in the following sentences
Quest'estate vado Stati Uniti e poichè non ho un conto corrente devo decidere se portare con me contanti oppure scegliere una carta prepagata.
This summer I go to the United States and because I don' t have the bank giro account I have to decide whether to take cash with me or a credit card.
Sono Monaco (Germania) e sono qui già da alcuni giorni.
I live in Munich (Germany) and I have been here already a few days.
Ogni trenta giorni vado farmacia e contribuisco a fare arricchire l'industria più potente del mondo.
Every thirty days I go to the pharmacy and contribute to enrich the richest and most powerful industry of the world.
Non possiamo però andare letto così presto, ci sentiamo "giovani" così andiamo in discoteca.
But we can' t go to bed so early, we feel young and so we go to the disco.
Ma perché quando vado Inghilterra gli inglesi fanno
finta di non capirmi?
But why the Englishmen feign that they don' t understand me when I go to Britain?
Vado università e cerco un lavoro
part-time che non rubi troppo tempo.
I go to the university und I am looking for a part time job which doesn' t consume a lot of time.
Sono università e uso il computer grosso modo per fare quello che fai tu.
Ich bin an der Uni und nutze den Computer für mehr oder weniger das gleiche wie du.
Mi sento a tutti gli effetti Italiana, ma quando sono Francia mi basta qualche ora per tornare a parlare e pensare in francese.
I am at the university and I use the computer for more or less the things as you do.
Nel pomeriggio siamo andati cinema, a vedere "The Simpsons Movie".
 
The afternoon we went to the cinema to see the film "The Simpsons Movie".
 






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