Sul treno c’è un posto vuoto.

to be

Breakdown of Sul treno c’è un posto vuoto.

• su: on
• il treno: the train
• vuoto: empty

Questions & Answers about Sul treno c’è un posto vuoto.

What does Sul stand for in this sentence?

Sul is the contraction of the preposition su (“on”) and the masculine singular definite article il (“the”). So su + il = sul, meaning “on the”.

Why is it su + il (sul) rather than su + lo?

In Italian the definite article il is used before most consonants. Lo is reserved for nouns that start with z, s + consonant, gn, ps, x or y. Since treno begins with tr, you pair su with il, giving sul treno.

What is c’è, and why does it have an apostrophe?

c’è is a contraction of the adverbial pronoun ci (meaning “there”) plus the verb è (third-person singular of essere, “to be”). We use an apostrophe because the vowel i from ci is dropped before the vowel è.

Why do we say c’è instead of ci sono here?

c’è is singular, so it’s used when the following noun is singular (un posto). If you had multiple seats, you’d say ci sono posti vuoti (“there are empty seats”).