derived from Latin, e.g. quando ("when"), dove ("where"), come ("how"), perché ("why"/"because"), mai ("never"), sempre ("always"), etc. Prepositions Italian has a closed class of basic prepositions, to which a number of adverbs can be added that also double as prepositions, e.g.: sopra il tavolo ("upon the table"), prima di adesso ("before now"). In modern Italian the prepositions tra and fra are interchangeable, and often chosen on the basis of euphony: tra fratelli ("among brothers") vs. fra i tralicci ("between the power pylons"). In modern Italian, all the basic prepositions except tra, fra, con and per have to be combined with an article placed next to them. Of these, con and per have optional combining forms: col, collo, colla, coll', coi, cogli, colle; pel, pello, pella, pell', pei, pegli, pelle; except for col and coi, which are occasionally used, however, these are archaic and very rare. Prepositions normally require the article before the following noun in a similar way as the English language does. However Latin's lack of articles influenced several cases of prepositions used without article in Italian (e.g., "a capo", "da capo", "di colpo", "in bicicletta", "per strada"). The preposition su becomes su di before a pronoun (e.g., "su di te"). Some speakers also use su di before a word beginning in u for euphonic reasons (e.g., "su di un cavallo"), but this is regarded as incorrect by grammarians. Historically the variant form sur was used before the letter u; however, this form fell into disuse during the nineteenth century. Syntax Italian is an SVO language. Nevertheless, the SVO sequence is sometimes replaced by one of the other arrangements (SOV, VSO, OVS, etc.), especially for reasons of emphasis and, in literature, for reasons of style and metre: Italian has relatively free word order. The subject is usually omitted when it is a pronoun – distinctive verb conjugations make it redundant. Subject pronouns are considered emphatic when used at all. Questions are formed by a rising intonation at the end of the sentence (in written form, a question mark). There is usually no other special marker, although wh-movement does usually occur. In general, intonation and context are important to recognize questions from affirmative statements. In general, adjectives come after the noun they modify, adverbs after the verb. But: as with French, adjectives coming before the noun indicate essential quality of the noun. Demonstratives (e.g. questo this, quello that) come before