"The garlic is on the plate."

Translation: L'aglio è nel piatto.

[MochidoesItalian]

nel vs. nello! whats the diference?!

[taohinton]

nel = in il

nello = in lo

[nickruiz]

Why is it valid to say "nel piatto"? Shouldn't it be "sul piatto"?

[marziotta]

It's the common way to use the word in this context. We consider the plate as a container, like a bottle or a glass, and then we use more often "NEL piatto".

Prepositions are indeed tricky!

[MadhuNSanu]

Yeah true

[volleyballDVM16]

Garlic-better on cheesy bread than raw on a plate! LOL:)

[deactivated user]

This make me crack up so here, have a lingot!

[James940078]

Why not "nel il piatto"?

[lukaperica]

in + il= nel

L'aglio e in il piatto= L'aglio e nel piatto

[joannaboccardo]

How do I know when to use "l'" instead of la, il, etc.

[just-veronicas]

L' is used when the first letter of the word is a vowel

[bilboburgler]

let me take you back to the "mouse is in the book" I'm confused since they use nello, does that mean the mouse is a character in the book, the mouse is sitting on the book or indeed is the mouse crushed within the book. We should be told. I'm not sure now is the garlic sitting on the plate, in a stencil on the plate or indeed did some fool bake the garlic into the plate?

Seriously though, what are the rules about nel and nello?

[lukaperica]

Nel and nello are prepositions combined with the definite articles which stand before nouns. So "nel" is the result of combining the preposition IN+ IL piatto. IN mostly means literally "in something" and IL before a noun describes it as a masculine singular noun. So for a female singular noun it would be IN+LA=nella. There is also a masculine singular noun LO, as in lo zaino(a backpack) so IN+LO= nello.
As for the use of prepositions such as IN, A, DI, DA etc there are various uses for each one and although there are rules, there are also many exemptions so don't try to rationalize TOO much and try to get them in your ear instead.
Hope this helps

[bilboburgler]

Thank you lukaperica, you are so kind :-)

[MochidoesItalian]

grazie tu sei awesome!

[alcnkrkmzz]

grazie

[lth5015]

I still don't understand when to use "nel/nello" and when to use "al"

[RaviOnline]

"nel/nello" = "in the" (on the); "al" = "to the"

[Ado415244]

I forgot what's the difference between L' an Il (also what I wrote).

[lukaperica]

Shouldn't it be "L'aglio c'è nel piatto" ?

[olefattguy]

That would be "The garlic it is on the plate"

[TomPetz]

l'aglio è sul piatto is the correct answer

[MusicMan97]

how do I know when to use l' instead of il?

[JagodaBara]

Why not 'nel e' but 'e nel'?

[danzi14]

I have right thing

[DjejeLude]

What is garlic? I dont understand becuse i speak croatian.

[Ado415244]

Cesnjak

[Kate3010]

That's not what they said in the lesson. I put nello which I now realise is wrong but their correction was 'sul' piatto!

[Joanne358713]

Please tell me what I am doing wrong

[JuergenZirak]

I am certain somebody, for instance I, would try, if you let us know what you did...

[drcortese]

This correct, keep on saying wrong

[caluhh]

Nel? L'aglio è sul piatto. No?

[JuergenZirak]

While "sul" certainly is a more literal translation of "on the" then "nel", this doesn't imply the corresponding idiom uses the preposition with the closest word-for-word translation. Prepositions are notorious for having quite different usage in idioms of different languages. That being said - my Italian is not good enough yet to be certain if we have an error here, so I tend to trust in the course creators, until somebody has a strong argument for the opposite (like quoting a good reference, info from a native speaker,...).

[Emma91632]

My answer was exactly the same as the answer given but said incorrect. Does this happen often?

[Anne944215]

I don't have accents in Finnish language.

[ElieSadaka]

Why nel piatto and not sul piatto

[SineadHudson]

when do I use nel/nello vs. sul ?