Breakdown of Marco è andato al lago e Maria è andata in piscina.
essere
to be
e
and
in
in / made of (material)
Marco
Marco
andare
to go / to be fine / to work out
al
to the / at the
Maria
Maria
la piscina
the swimming pool
il lago
the lake
Questions & Answers about Marco è andato al lago e Maria è andata in piscina.
Why does the verb change from andato for Marco to andata for Maria?
When a verb forms its past tense with essere (to be), the ending of the past participle has to match the gender of the subject. Since Marco is masculine, he gets andato. Maria is feminine, so she gets andata.
Why do we use è (is) here instead of ha (has)?
Where does the word al come from in al lago?
Al is a combined preposition. It merges the word a (to) with the masculine singular article il (the) because lago is a masculine word.
Why do we say in piscina without a word for the, unlike the lake?
Many common destinations in Italian use the preposition in all by itself, without a definite article. You will often see this with places like in piscina (to the pool), in banca (to the bank), and in palestra (to the gym).
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