Dopo essere sceso, ho comprato un gettone in quel chiosco.

Questions & Answers about Dopo essere sceso, ho comprato un gettone in quel chiosco.

Why do we use essere in dopo essere sceso instead of avere?
The past infinitive uses the exact same helping verb that the verb normally uses in the past tense. Because scendere (to go down or get off) is a verb of movement, it takes essere. Therefore, we say dopo essere sceso rather than using avere.
If the speaker were a woman, would the first part of the sentence change?
Yes, it would become dopo essere scesa. Whenever you use essere as the helping verb, the past participle (in this case, sceso) must change its ending to match the gender and number of the subject. A female speaker would change the -o to an -a.
Why doesn't the second verb, ho comprato, also use essere?
Each verb in a sentence chooses its own helping verb based on its own rules. While scendere is a verb of movement that requires essere, comprare (to buy) takes a direct object (you buy a thing, like un gettone) and therefore uses the helping verb avere.
Why is it quel chiosco and not quello chiosco?
The word quello (that) changes its ending to match the word that follows it, following the exact same rules as the word for 'the'. Because chiosco takes the normal article il, quello becomes quel. You would only use the full word quello before words that take the article lo (such as words starting with 's' plus a consonant).

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