ELONIO
Log inSign up

È arrivato in palestra presto.

È arrivato in palestra presto.
He arrived at the gym early.
From Lesson 69:The passato prossimo with essere (sono andato)·Italian

Questions & Answers about È arrivato in palestra presto.

Why does this sentence use È instead of Ha for "He has"?
In Italian, the past tense (passato prossimo) usually uses avere (to have) as a helper verb, but verbs describing motion to or from a destination, like arrivare (to arrive), use essere (to be). Literally, this sentence says "He is arrived".
Since there is no lui (he) or lei (she) in the sentence, how do we know it means "He arrived"?
Look at the ending of arrivato. When a past tense verb uses essere (to be) as its helper, the main verb's ending has to match the subject, just like an adjective. Because arrivato ends in -o, we know the hidden subject is a single male (he). If a woman arrived, it would be È arrivata.
Why is it in palestra instead of alla palestra (at the gym)?
Certain common daily destinations in Italian always use the preposition in without the word "the" attached. Palestra (gym) is one of these standard exceptions. You will also see this rule with places like in banca (at the bank) and in farmacia (at the pharmacy).
If a woman arrived early, would presto change to presta?
No, it stays exactly the same. Presto (early) is an adverb, which means it describes how or when the action happened. Unlike adjectives or past participles (like arrivata) that describe a person, adverbs never change their endings to match gender or number.

Learn È arrivato in palestra presto and more in Italian

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning Italian →