Nel centro storico c’è un municipio antico.

In the historic center there is an old town hall.

Breakdown of Nel centro storico c’è un municipio antico.

• essere: to be
• in: in
• il centro: the center
• storico: historic

Questions & Answers about Nel centro storico c’è un municipio antico.

Why is nel used instead of just in?

Nel is a contraction of in + il. In Italian, when in (meaning “in”) comes before the masculine singular definite article il, they merge into nel. So nel centro storico literally means “in the historic center.”

What does c’è stand for and why does it have an apostrophe?

C’è is a short form of ci + è, meaning “there is.” The apostrophe marks the dropped vowel of ci when it’s joined with è (the third-person singular of essere, “to be”). For plural you’d say ci sono (“there are”).

Why do we use the indefinite article un instead of the definite il?

We use un because the sentence refers to any old town hall, not a specific one that the speaker and listener both know. If you wanted to say “the old town hall,” you’d use il municipio antico instead of un municipio antico.

How do we translate municipio into English, and what is its grammatical gender?