Learn Hardcore Italian: Nella palestra, il sudore sul pavimento rende le ruote del carrello un po’ scivolose. - In the gym, the sweat on the floor makes the trolley wheels a bit slippery.

Nella palestra literally means “in the gym.” In Italian, when the preposition in meets the feminine singular definite article la, they merge into a single word: in + la → nella. You never say in la palestra; you always use the contraction.

What is sul pavimento, and why is it su + il rather than just su il?

Sul is a contraction of the preposition su (“on”) and the masculine singular article il (“the”). So su + il pavimento (“on the floor”) becomes sul pavimento. Italian frequently fuses simple prepositions with definite articles:

a
- la → alla
di
- i → dei
su
- lo → sullo
  and so on.

What does rende mean in this context, and why is it used instead of fa?

Here, rende is the third-person singular of rendere, which means “to make” or “to render.” Translating literally: “makes the cart’s wheels a bit slippery.” You could say fa (“makes”) in very colloquial speech, but rendere is more precise for indicating a change of state. So:

rendere le ruote scivolose = “to make the wheels slippery.”

Why is the adjective scivolose feminine plural?

In Italian, adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun they modify. Ruote is feminine plural, so the adjective must also be feminine plural: ruote scivolose. If it were ruota (singular) you’d say scivolosa, and if it were a masculine noun you’d use scivoloso / scivolosi.

What does un po’ mean, and why is there an apostrophe at the end?

Un po’ is a shortened form of un poco, meaning “a little” or “a bit.” The apostrophe indicates the missing co at the end of poco. You always write it as po’ when abbreviating, and keep the space after un: un po’.

Why is il sudore singular here? Can we say i sudori?

Sudore is treated as a mass (uncountable) noun when talking about “sweat” in general, so it stays singular: il sudore = “the sweat.” Using i sudori would pluralize it and suggest discrete beads or types of sweat, which is less common in Italian.

Why do we say ruote del carrello instead of ruote di carrello?

In Italian, most common nouns require a definite article after di when you mean “of the.” Ruote del carrello is ruote + (di + il carrello) → del carrello. Saying ruote di carrello omits the article and sounds ungrammatical. If you really wanted “wheels of a cart” in the indefinite sense, you’d say ruote di un carrello, but that changes the meaning to “some cart’s wheels” rather than “the cart’s wheels.”