Past perfect (trapassato prossimo) in Italian

Definition and usage of the past perfect in Italian (trapassato prossimo)

The trapassato prossimo is a compound tense that belongs to the indicative mood.

• It refers to an action which took place in the past.
• It is used to indicate an action which had finished before another action took place.

Example:

• Quando arrivai alla stazione il treno era già partito (When I arrived at the station, the train had already left)
• All'epoca non avevo voluto mangiare la lasagna perchè ero vegetariana (At that time I hadn't wanted to eat the lasagna because I was vegetarian)

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Usage together with other past tenses

The trapassato prossimo can be found in sentences together with the passato prossimo, imperfetto or passato remoto. 

Conjugation of the trapassato prossimo

The trapassato prossimo is formed as follows:

Imperfetto of the auxiliary verb + past participle (participio passato)

Conjugation of regular verbs in the trapassato prossimo

Regular verbs form the trapassato prossimo as follows:

Verbs that belong to the -are conjugation

Example mangiare (to eat)

Verbs that belong to the -ere conjugation

Example credere (to believe)

Verbs that belong to the -ire conjugation

Example partire (to leave)

*Remember that when you use the auxiliary verb essere, the participio passato must agree with the subject in gender and number!

Conjugation of irregular verbs in the trapassato prossimo

Here are some verbs that form the trapassato prossimo in an irregular way. The conjugation of such verbs has to be studied by heart.

Example:

• Luca aveva detto che sarebbe venuto alle 15 (Luca said he would come at 3 pm)
• La professoressa aveva corretto tutti i nostri compiti prima delle vancenze (The teacher had corrected all our tests before the holidays)

Auxiliary verbs: essere/avere

Here is the conjugation for the auxiliary verbs essere and avere in the trapassato prossimo

Example:

• Quella mattina, Maria aveva avuto un gran mal di testa (That morning, Maria had had a bad headache)
• Ero stato a casa tutto il fine settimana (I had been at home the whole weekend)

Now don't forget to test your knowledge with our exercises on the trapassato prossimo!