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Lo scienziato ha scavato e ha trovato un fossile antichissimo.

Lo scienziato ha scavato e ha trovato un fossile antichissimo.
The scientist dug and found a very ancient fossil.
From Lesson 154:Elapsed time (fa)·Italian

Breakdown of Lo scienziato ha scavato e ha trovato un fossile antichissimo.

un
a / an (masculine)
e
and
trovare
to find
antico
ancient
lo scienziato
the scientist
scavare
to dig
il fossile
the fossil

Questions & Answers about Lo scienziato ha scavato e ha trovato un fossile antichissimo.

How would I add a time expression like 'a long time ago' to this sentence using fa?
You can use molto tempo fa (literally much time ago). You usually put these time expressions at the very beginning or the very end of the sentence. For example: Lo scienziato ha scavato e ha trovato un fossile antichissimo molto tempo fa.
Why is the article Lo used for scienziato instead of Il?
Because scienziato starts with an s followed by another consonant (c). Masculine singular words starting with s plus a consonant always take the definite article lo instead of il.
Why does antichissimo have an h in it when the base word is antico?
The suffix -issimo means 'very', turning antico (ancient) into antichissimo (very ancient). Because antico ends with a hard 'k' sound, you have to add an h before the i in -issimo to keep that hard sound. Without the h, it would be pronounced with a soft 'ch' sound like in 'cheese'.
Why do we repeat ha in ha scavato e ha trovato? Could I just say ha scavato e trovato?
Yes, you can drop the second ha and say Lo scienziato ha scavato e trovato... just like in English. Repeating the helper verb ha is completely optional in Italian, but doing so often sounds a bit more natural and emphasizes that these were two distinct actions.
How do I know if a noun ending in -e like fossile is masculine or feminine?
Nouns ending in -e can be either masculine or feminine, so you often just have to memorize their gender as you learn them. However, in this sentence, the article un gives it away! If it were a feminine word, it would use una.

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