Breakdown of Il gatto è sempre più agile e riesce a non cadere.
essere
to be
il gatto
the cat
e
and
non
not
sempre
always
più
more / anymore (with 'non')
cadere
to fall
riuscire
to manage / to succeed
a
(linking a verb to a following infinitive)
agile
agile
Questions & Answers about Il gatto è sempre più agile e riesce a non cadere.
Why use riesce a here instead of può or sa?
Riuscire a means "to manage to" or "to succeed in" doing something, usually implying some effort or overcoming an obstacle. Può (from potere) would just mean the cat has the physical possibility to not fall, and sa (from sapere) would mean it "knows how" to not fall as a learned skill. Here, the cat is actively managing to stay up thanks to its agility.
Why is there an a after riesce?
The verb riuscire requires the preposition a before a following infinitive verb (a verb in its basic dictionary form). Unlike potere and sapere, which connect directly to the next verb (like può cadere), riuscire always needs that link.
Why is non placed between a and cadere?
When negating an infinitive verb in Italian, the word non goes directly before that infinitive. Because riuscire connects with the preposition a, the correct sequence is riuscire a + non + infinitive (cadere).
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