Learn Italian: Ci siamo seduti sulla panchina nel parco. - We sat down on the bench in the park.

Ci siamo seduti sulla panchina nel parco.

We sat down on the bench in the park.

Breakdown of Ci siamo seduti sulla panchina nel parco.

il parco

the park

in / made of (material)

on, about

la panchina

bench

Questions & Answers about Ci siamo seduti sulla panchina nel parco.

Why do we use siamo instead of abbiamo here?

The verb is sedersi (to sit down), which is a reflexive verb in Italian (literally "to sit oneself"). In the past tense, all reflexive verbs must use essere (to be) as their helping verb, so we use siamo instead of abbiamo.

Why does seduti end in -i?

Whenever a past tense uses essere as its helping verb, the ending of the past participle (the action word) must change to match the subject. Since the subject "we" is plural, the ending changes to the masculine plural -i. If the "we" referred to a group of only women, it would be sedute.

Where does the reflexive pronoun ci have to go?

In two-part past tenses like this one, the reflexive pronoun (ci, meaning "ourselves") always goes directly before the helping verb (siamo). You cannot put it between the helping verb and the past participle.

I remember su means "on" and in means "in". Why are they sulla and nel here?