Breakdown of L'eroe nacque con un arco e una freccia.
un
a / an (masculine)
una
a / an (feminine)
e
and
con
with
l'eroe
the hero (m)
nascere
to be born / to arise / stem from
l'arco
the bow (m)
la freccia
the arrow
Questions & Answers about L'eroe nacque con un arco e una freccia.
Where does the word nacque come from?
It is the third-person singular of nascere (to be born) in the passato remoto (historical past) tense. Nascere has a highly irregular pattern in this tense, changing its stem to nacqu- for the io, lui/lei, and loro forms (nacqui, nacque, nacquero).
Could I say L'eroe è nato instead of L'eroe nacque?
Yes, in everyday spoken Italian, you would usually use the passato prossimo (è nato). However, the passato remoto (nacque) is the standard tense used in literature, fairy tales, and historical texts to describe completed events in the distant past. Since this sentence is about a hero, it sounds like a line from a storybook!
Why doesn't un arco have an apostrophe, since arco starts with a vowel?
Because arco is a masculine noun. The masculine indefinite article is simply un, which never takes an apostrophe. You only use an apostrophe with feminine nouns that start with a vowel, because it replaces the final letter in una (for example, un'amica).
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