Breakdown of Il dieci gennaio, tre turisti sono rimasti dispersi dopo la valanga.
essere
to be
tre
three
dieci
ten
il gennaio
January
dopo
after
rimanere
to remain, to stay behind
il turista
the tourist
la valanga
the avalanche
disperso
missing
Questions & Answers about Il dieci gennaio, tre turisti sono rimasti dispersi dopo la valanga.
Why does this sentence use sono rimasti dispersi instead of just sono dispersi?
This is the resultative passive voice. While sono dispersi simply states the current fact ("they are missing"), using the auxiliary rimanere emphasizes the resulting state after an event. It highlights that becoming and remaining missing was the direct result of the avalanche.
Why do both rimasti and dispersi end in -i?
They both need to agree with the masculine plural subject, tre turisti. Because rimanere uses essere as its helping verb in the past tense, its past participle (rimasti) must match the subject in gender and number. Dispersi acts as an adjective describing those tourists, so it also takes the masculine plural ending.
Could I use persi instead of dispersi to say the tourists are missing?
Not naturally in this context. While persi means "lost" (like losing your keys or losing your way on a hike), dispersi is the specific term used for people who are "missing" or unaccounted for after a disaster, accident, or military conflict.
Quick refresher: why is it il dieci gennaio rather than an ordinal number to mean "the tenth"?
In Italian, you only use the ordinal number for the very first day of the month (il primo gennaio). For every other day, you just use cardinal numbers (due, tre, dieci) preceded by the singular masculine definite article il.
Learn Il dieci gennaio, tre turisti sono rimasti dispersi dopo la valanga and more in Italian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free