"The bee is in the sugar."

Translation: L'ape è nello zucchero.

[Laurentfastrez]

They are some crazy stuff in italian sugar.

[arthur.nap]

i might as well not eat sugar ever again

[kitkerr]

why doesn't nel work here?

[camomiletea]

Because nel is in+il, zucchero requires "lo" rather than "il". General rule for "lo" is before "z" or "s"+consonant, e.g. "lo zio", "lo studente".

[tojorab]

Thank you, I was wondering why that didn't work.

[cessi75]

but it didn't work for "the book" when i wrote nello libro; the system gave an error message stating that i should go with nel libro. why?

[f.formica]

In that case it would be "il libro", so "nel libro" :)

[annbitcon]

Wow you are brilliant. Thanks now that makes sense.

[Ivan1954]

Zucchero need not to be used with a definite article, or?

[f.formica]

It is used with a definite article: nello is the compound of in+lo.

[Sionel]

Ah, that's the first time I've seen that explained to me. Thanks.

I presume "nel il zucchero" therefore makes no sense?

[emirotin]

An algorithm blindly replaces the key word (ape) with similar words from the topic (animals) leading to incorrect forms like "l'farfalla"

[BrunAnimas]

FINALLY!! Something with sense xD

[Knowmeo]

What's the difference between nel and nello please? :)

[ReutCherniak]

Nel is in + il and nello is in+lo

[Knowmeo]

I don't get it... :(

[ReutCherniak]

for example, the noun rico (rice) is a singular masculine noun that begins with a consonant (r). therefore, if we want to say - the rice - we say it as - il rico. now, in italian in is in, so if you combine in + il you get nel - which means in the. but, if a masculine noun begins with a "z" or a "s" + consonant , you say "the" as "lo". for example, the noun "zucchero" (sugar) is masculine and begins with a "z", therefore, "the sugar" will be translated into "lo zucchero". and again, as i said "in"(inside in english) is "in" (same meaning for the same word in both english and italian - in is in). sooo, in +lo will create "nello" which means "in the" for words that are masculine and begine with either z or s +consonant. i really hope that helped!