Breakdown of Ieri sono rimasto a casa.
la casa
the house
a
to / at
ieri
yesterday
rimanere
to remain, to stay behind
Questions & Answers about Ieri sono rimasto a casa.
Why does the sentence use sono (I am) to mean "I stayed"? Shouldn't it use ho (I have)?
In Italian, the past tense (passato prossimo) uses a helping verb plus a past participle. Most verbs use avere (to have), but verbs describing movement or a state of being use essere (to be). Because rimanere (to stay or remain) describes a state of being, it takes sono instead of ho.
If a woman is speaking, does the sentence change?
What is the infinitive (dictionary form) of rimasto?
It comes from rimanere (to remain or to stay). Rimasto is an irregular past participle, meaning it doesn't follow the normal pattern for verbs ending in -ere, so you just have to memorize it.
Why is it just a casa instead of using an article like alla casa?
When talking about being at home or going home, Italian uses the simple preposition a without an article. It works just like English in this case: we say "at home", not "at the home".