dellaltro

Dellaltro is a written form of the Italian grammatical contraction dell'altro, meaning "of the other" or "of another." It emerges from the combination of the preposition di with the definite article l' (eliding il/lo before a vowel) and the adjective altro, which means "other." In standard Italian, the correct orthography includes the apostrophe: dell'altro. The form dellaltro (without the apostrophe) is typically considered nonstandard or a punctuation omission in ordinary Italian writing.

Usage and meaning

Dell'altro is used to denote possession, attribution, or relation to another person or thing. It answers questions such as "di chi?" (of whom) or "to whom does this belong?" Examples include:

- il libro dell'altro studente (the other student's book)

- la decisione dell'altro reparto (the other department's decision)

- un'idea dell'altro uomo (an idea of the other man)

Grammatical notes

The phrase is formed from di + l'altro, with l'altro functioning as a determiner-noun unit meaning "the other." It appears before a singular noun and agrees with any following head noun as part of a larger noun phrase. When referring to multiple others, Italian uses a different construction, such as degli altri or degli altri, depending on gender and number.

See also

altro, dell’, di, l’, Italian possessive and prepositional constructions.