Sul tavolo c’è dell’uva fresca accanto al pane.

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Breakdown of Sul tavolo c’è dell’uva fresca accanto al pane.

• il tavolo: the table
• fresco: fresh
• c'è: there is

Questions & Answers about Sul tavolo c’è dell’uva fresca accanto al pane.

Why does sul mean on the table?

Sul is a contraction of su + il.

• su = on
• il = the

So:

• su il tavolo → sul tavolo

Italian often combines simple prepositions with definite articles:

• su + il = sul
• a + il = al
• di + il = del

That is why sul tavolo means on the table.

Why is it c’è here? What does it do?

C’è means there is.

It is made from:

• ci = there
• è = is

So Sul tavolo c’è dell’uva fresca literally means On the table there is some fresh grapes/grape in the sense of There are some fresh grapes on the table.

Italian often uses c’è and ci sono to introduce the existence or presence of something:

• C’è un libro. = There is a book.
• Ci sono due libri. = There are two books.

Here, c’è is used because uva is grammatically singular in Italian, even though in English we may think of grapes as plural.

Why is it dell’uva instead of just uva?