Ricerc@Sapienza

Secondary, non-prototypical prepositions have the form of an adverb, adjective, verb, noun or prepositional phrase; in some cases the etymology is only partially transparent. Most prepositions govern the genitive but can also be constructed with the dative. The difference between the two cases is considered essentially stylistic, the dative being associated with oral and informal language. For some prepositions, however, both cases are equally accepted in standard language. Moreover, a group of prepositions should govern only dative, but in everyday language also genitive can be found.