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La scatola è sulla scala.

La scatola è sulla scala.
The box is on the ladder.
From Lesson 50:Articulated prepositions with su (sul, sulla)·Italian

Questions & Answers about La scatola è sulla scala.

Why do we use sulla instead of just su?
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?
In Italian, most singular nouns that end in the letter -a are feminine. Because they are feminine, scatola gets the feminine article la, and scala requires the combined feminine preposition sulla (su + la).

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