Learn Italian: C'è un bel fiore nel vaso. - There is a beautiful flower in the vase.

C'è un bel fiore nel vaso.

There is a beautiful flower in the vase.

Breakdown of C'è un bel fiore nel vaso.

Questions & Answers about C'è un bel fiore nel vaso.

Why do we use nel instead of just in?

Nel is an articulated preposition. When the preposition in is followed by the masculine definite article il (the), they merge to become nel. You cannot say in il vaso, you must combine them and say nel vaso.

Why is the word for beautiful bel here instead of bello?

The adjective bello changes its ending depending on the word that follows it, similar to how 'a' becomes 'an' in English. Before a masculine singular noun starting with most consonants (like fiore), bello drops its ending and becomes bel.

Where does c'è come from?

C'è translates to 'there is'. It is a combination of ci (which acts here as 'there') and è (the 'is' form of the verb to be). Because è starts with a vowel, the i in ci is dropped and replaced with an apostrophe.

The word fiore ends in -e. How can I tell if it is masculine or feminine?