Breakdown of La donna viene soccorsa e messa sulla barella.
la donna
the woman
e
and
mettere
to put / to put on / play (music)
su
on, about
venire
to be (passive auxiliary)
soccorrere
to rescue
la barella
the stretcher
Questions & Answers about La donna viene soccorsa e messa sulla barella.
Why is viene used here instead of è for the passive voice?
Using venire instead of essere for the passive voice is very common in simple tenses. It emphasizes the dynamic action or process taking place right now (the act of being rescued), removing any ambiguity that è soccorsa might have as a static condition (already being in a rescued state).
Considering the current lesson, could we use rimane or resta instead of viene in this sentence?
No, because rimanere and restare are used for the resultative passive to show a lingering state after an event (like rimane ferita, she is left injured). Being rescued (soccorsa) and being put on a stretcher (messa) are direct actions happening to the woman, not lingering states, so the dynamic passive with venire is required.
Why doesn't messa have an auxiliary verb before it?
Why do both soccorsa and messa end in -a?
In all passive voice constructions, the past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject. Since the subject receiving the action is La donna (feminine singular), the irregular past participles of soccorrere and mettere must take the feminine singular ending -a.
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