"L'aglio è nel piatto."
Translation:The garlic is on the plate.
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576
Except for very few words as: glicine, glicerina, anglicano and few others, the italian sound "GLI" doesn't have an English equivalent.
IMHO it is more useful to listen and try to repeat the "GLI" sound inside the words (coniglio, famiglia, maglietta, paglia, foglia, moglie, sbaglio)
576
"il pollo è SUL piatto" is not wrong, but the first thing that comes to my mind is about a live chicken standing on the plate.
A cooked chicken is almost always "NEL piatto".
in your rule there is something truth, but in italy, "nel piatto" is used even for larger food
576
in italian, there are the particular combinations "gn" and "gli" , where the "g" sound disappear completely forming two new sounds
• pigna (pine cone), ragno (spider)
• figlio (son), famiglia (family)
576
because nel = in + il (in the)
For an Englishman "the garlic is on the plate", for an Italian "the garlic is in the plate"
. . .͟ ͟.͟ ͟ ɷ̲ ̲ ̲
╱ . . . . . . ╲ = L'aglio è sul piatto (the garlic is on the plate)
╲.͟ ͟.͟ ͟ ɷ̲ ̲ ̲ ╱ = L'aglio è nel piatto (the garlic is on the plate)
576
nel - nello - nell' - nella - nei - negli - nelle (preposizioni articolate)
All words above, most of the times, mean "in the"
The proper use depends on which article you must use
e.g.: nel = in+il -•- nello = in+lo -•- nell' = in+l' -•-...
In the plate because the garlic is inside. The fundamental meaning of the preposition in for the Italian is "positioning in the space or in the time", the meaning of su (on) is "upper position". So the plate is on the (sul) table namely it's on the top of the table and the garlic is contained within the (nel) plate.
The use of the prepositions is not the same in English and in Italian: in is a location in the space or in the time nel piatto means that the gartic stay inside of the plate, this because the desk is not flat but concave; su indicates an upper position, so sul piatto means on top of or upper the plate.
L'aglio è nel piatto sul tavolo The gartic is on the desk on the table