Learn Italian: La scatola è sulla scala. - The box is on the ladder.

In Italian, when the preposition su (on) is followed by a definite article like la (the), they combine into one word. Since scala (ladder) is a feminine singular noun, it uses the article la. Therefore, su + la becomes sulla.

I thought scala meant "stairs". Can it also mean "ladder"?

Yes! The Italian word scala is used for stairs, a staircase, a stepladder, and a regular ladder. In real life, context usually tells you which one makes the most sense. "The box is on the stairs" would also be a perfectly correct translation for this sentence.

Why does è have an accent mark here?

The accent mark shows that è means "is" (from the verb essere, to be). Without the accent mark, e simply means "and". The accent is crucial for telling these two tiny but very common words apart when reading and writing.

How do we know scala and scatola are feminine?