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Gli uccelli sono sugli alberi.

Gli uccelli sono sugli alberi.
The birds are in the trees.
From Lesson 50:Articulated prepositions with su (sul, sulla)·Italian

Breakdown of Gli uccelli sono sugli alberi.

essere
to be
l'albero
the tree
l'uccello
the bird
su
on, about

Questions & Answers about Gli uccelli sono sugli alberi.

Why use sugli (on the) when the English translation says "in the trees"?
In English, we say birds sit "in" a tree, but Italians say they sit "on" a tree. That is why this sentence uses the preposition su (on) instead of in.
How exactly is the word sugli formed here?
It is a combined word (an articulated preposition) made from su (on) and gli (the). In Italian, you must combine these into a single word whenever su comes right before the article gli.
Why do both uccelli and alberi take the article gli?
Both uccelli (birds) and alberi (trees) are masculine plural nouns that start with a vowel. For masculine plural words starting with a vowel, Italian always uses gli for "the".
What would "on the tree" be in the singular?
The singular is sull'albero. The article gli changes to l' before a vowel in the singular, so su + l' becomes sull'.

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