Clothes

This list is full of two-word objects, and English builds every one of them the same lazy way, by putting one noun in front of another: « a wool jumper », « a cotton T-shirt », « a leather bag », « a straw hat ». Italian cannot do that at all. It needs a preposition, and it has to pick the right one of two. Di says what the thing is made of, and the four material words here all turn up in that frame — un maglione di lana, una maglietta di cotone, una borsa di pelle, un cappello di paglia. Da says what the thing is for: gli occhiali da lettura are reading glasses, le scarpe da ginnastica are trainers, il vestito da sera is an evening dress. One pair settles the rule for good. Sunglasses are occhiali da sole, because they are for the sun and not made of it, and occhiali di sole is the first mistake to rule out. Note also that the order flips: English puts the material first and the object second, so « a wool jumper » has to be read backwards before it can be rebuilt.