Lesson 186: Understanding Verbs -- divorziare (da)

The verb, divorziare (da), means:

• to divorce

When divorcing someone (such as your husband/wife), you must use the preposition, da, before the person that you are divorcing:

Ho divorziato da mia moglie.
I divorced my wife.

The reason for this construction is that divorziare is an intransitive verb -- that means that direct objects never follow the verb. This verb can also be used generally, too:

I miei genitori stanno divorziando.
My parents are divorcing.

Abbiamo divorziato dopo un anno perché mia moglie mi ha tradito.
We divorced after a year because my wife was unfaithful to me.