Breakdown of L'alpinista si è rassegnato dopo essere scivolato nel crepaccio.
essere
to be
nel
in the (in + il) / while / upon (doing something)
scivolare
to slip
dopo
after
l'alpinista
the mountaineer (m)
il crepaccio
the crevasse
rassegnarsi
to resign oneself
Questions & Answers about L'alpinista si è rassegnato dopo essere scivolato nel crepaccio.
What type of verb is rassegnarsi, and why does it take è here?
Rassegnarsi (to resign oneself / to give up) is a pronominal verb of resignation used reflexively here. Like all reflexive verbs in compound tenses like the passato prossimo, it requires the auxiliary verb essere. Because it takes essere, the past participle must agree with the subject, ending in -o for a masculine singular subject.
Why is the second half of the sentence dopo essere scivolato instead of a conjugated verb?
When the subject is the same in both parts of the sentence (the mountaineer gave up, the mountaineer slipped), Italian typically uses dopo + the past infinitive (the infinito passato) rather than conjugating the second verb with a phrase like dopo che è scivolato. It translates exactly to 'after having slipped'.
Why does the past infinitive use essere instead of avere (avere scivolato)?
Scivolare (to slip or slide) is an intransitive verb of motion, so it always requires essere as its auxiliary. This rule applies even in the past infinitive form. And just like in a normal past tense, using essere means the participle (scivolato) must agree with the subject in gender and number.
Since l'alpinista ends in -a, is the mountaineer a woman?
No. Nouns ending in -ista (like alpinista, dentista, turista) have the exact same form for masculine and feminine in the singular. We know this specific mountaineer is a man because the past participles in the sentence (rassegnato, scivolato) end in -o. If she were a woman, the sentence would be: L'alpinista si è rassegnata dopo essere scivolata.
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