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Il ciclista stanco si è fermato nel parco.

Il ciclista stanco si è fermato nel parco.
The tired cyclist stopped in the park.
From Lesson 248:Nouns ending in -ista (-ista, -isti, -iste)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Il ciclista stanco si è fermato nel parco.

Since ciclista ends in -a, how do we know this cyclist is a man?
Nouns ending in -ista that describe professions or hobbies are the exact same for both men and women in the singular. We know this is a male cyclist because of the masculine article il and the masculine adjective stanco. For a woman, it would be la ciclista stanca.
How would you say 'the tired cyclists' if there were multiple people?
Even though the singular form ciclista is invariable, the plurals change based on gender! A group of male (or mixed) cyclists becomes i ciclisti stanchi, while a group of female cyclists becomes le cicliste stanche.
Why does the verb use è instead of ha for the past tense here?
The verb here is fermarsi (to stop oneself). Reflexive verbs always use essere as their helping verb in past tenses like the passato prossimo. If the cyclist were stopping something else, like a car, you would use the non-reflexive verb with avere: ha fermato la macchina.
Because it uses essere, would the ending of fermato change if the cyclist was female?
Yes! Whenever a past tense verb uses essere as its helper, the past participle has to agree with the subject in gender and number. If this were a female cyclist, the sentence would be la ciclista stanca si è fermata nel parco.

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