Log inSign up

La volpe è scappata e il cervo è rimasto.

La volpe è scappata e il cervo è rimasto.
The fox escaped and the deer stayed.
From Lesson 391:Infinitives as nouns (il bere, il dormire)·Italian

Questions & Answers about La volpe è scappata e il cervo è rimasto.

Why do both of these verbs use è instead of ha?
Both scappare (to escape) and rimanere (to stay) are intransitive verbs expressing movement or a state of being. In Italian, these types of verbs always take essere as their auxiliary (helping) verb in compound tenses like the passato prossimo.
Why does the past participle end in -a for the fox but -o for the deer?
Whenever a compound tense uses essere, the past participle must agree with the subject in gender and number. Since la volpe is feminine singular, the participle becomes scappata. Il cervo is masculine singular, so it becomes rimasto.
Is rimasto an irregular past participle?
Yes. The infinitive is rimanere (to remain/stay). It has an irregular past participle, rimasto. If it were a regular -ere verb, you might expect a different ending, so this specific form just has to be memorized.
La volpe is feminine and il cervo is masculine. Does this mean they are specifically a female fox and a male deer?
Not usually. Many animals in Italian have a fixed grammatical gender that applies to the whole species. La volpe is always a feminine noun and il cervo is always masculine, regardless of the biological sex of the animal. If you needed to specify a male fox, you would say la volpe maschio.

Learn La volpe è scappata e il cervo è rimasto 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
Start learning Italian →