Why "del"? (preposizioni articolate)
Hello everyone,

I have another question about preposizioni articolate. I have just completed an exercise where I have to write what Giorgio bought. For example, they show a picture of bread and so I must write "Giorgio bought bread." In Italian. I was able to write every sentence correctly.
The answers were:
Giorgio ha comprato del pane.
degli spaghetti.
dello zucchero.
dei giornali.
dei fiori.
dell'olio.
Even though I was able to complete the exercise, I do not understand WHY these answers are correct. Why is it "Giorgio ha comprato DEL pane." and not "Giorgio ha comprato IL pane"?

Thank you for taking the time to read my question.

Question

Why "del"? (preposizioni articolate)
Hello everyone,

I have another question about preposizioni articolate. I have just completed an exercise where I have to write what Giorgio bought. For example, they show a picture of bread and so I must write "Giorgio bought bread." In Italian. I was able to write every sentence correctly. 
The answers were:
Giorgio ha comprato del pane.
                                      degli spaghetti.
                                      dello zucchero.
                                      dei giornali.
                                      dei fiori.
                                      dell'olio.
Even though I was able to complete the exercise, I do not understand WHY these answers are correct. Why is it "Giorgio ha comprato DEL pane." and not "Giorgio ha comprato IL pane"?

Thank you for taking the time to read my question.

Answer

Ohhh! now it makes sense! In fact, when I was writing the question I kept writing "Giorgio bought some bread." and I kept deleting it. I guess I knew the answer deep down, but I needed a native speaker to really spell it out for me. :)

Answer

Hi Patricia. In this case this article can be translated with 'a part', 'a few', 'a little', etc. It's called Articolo partitivo, because it shows just one part or 'some', not because he bought more than one bread, but because this quantity is not specified.
If you would say 'Ha comprato IL pane', or 'Ha comprato I giornali', that would mean that these are more specific.