Learn Italian: La gente in piazza si è spaventata per la grandine e i fulmini. - The people in the square got scared because of the hail and the lightning bolts.

In Italian, la gente (people) is a feminine singular noun, much like "the crowd" in English. Even though it refers to many individuals, the grammar treats it as a single unit. Therefore, the verb and the past participle must also be feminine singular: si è spaventata.

Why does this sentence use essere as the auxiliary verb?

The verb used here is spaventarsi (to get scared), which is a reflexive verb. In Italian, all reflexive verbs require the auxiliary essere to form compound past tenses like the passato prossimo.

Why do we use per to mean "because of" here?

While per is most commonly introduced to learners as "for" or "in order to," it is also frequently used to express the cause or reason for an emotion or an event. In this sentence, getting scared per la grandine means getting scared "because of" the hail.

What are the singular forms of grandine and fulmini?

Grandine (hail) is already singular; it is a feminine noun ending in "-e" and is usually uncountable so it doesn't take a plural form here. A single lightning bolt is un fulmine (a masculine noun ending in "-e"), which changes to fulmini in the plural.