Past tenses in Italian

In the following pages you will find information on the past tenses that belong to the indicative mood:

• Present perfect in Italian (passato prossimo)
• Imperfect tense in Italian (imperfetto)
• Past perfect in Italian (trapassato prossimo)
• Remote past tense or absolute past tense (passato remoto)
• Preterite perfect tense (trapassato remoto)

Here is a chart to sum up the main past tenses of the indicative mood:

Present perfect in Italian

This compound tense in Italian is called passato prossimo.

This tense is used to refer to:

1. an action that took place in the recent past
2. an action in the past that still has ties to the present.

This tense is usually found with marker words such as ieri (yesterday), questa mattina (this morning), appena (just) and prima (before).

The passato prossimo in formed by:

Present indicative of the auxiliary verb + past participle of the main verb

Examples:

• Ieri ho mangiato della frutta - Yesterday I ate some fruit
• Ho appena finito di leggere il libro - I've just finished to read the book

Some Italian verbs form the past participle in a regular way:

• Parlare (to speak) - parlato
• Vendere (to sell) - venduto
• Finire (to finish) - finito

Some Italian verbs form the past participle in an irregular way so they have to be studied by heart:

• Aprire (to open) - aperto
• Scegliere (to choose) ​- scelto
• Chiedere (to ask) - chiesto

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Auxiliary verbs and the -are, -ere, -ire conjugations

Here is a chart to help you with the conjugation of Italian verbs in the passato prossimo.

Transitive and intransitive verbs

All transitive verbs form the passato prossimo using the auxiliary verb avere.
The majority of intransitive verbs form the passato prossimo using the auxiliary verb essere. When a compound tense is formed with the verb essere, the past participle must agree with the subject in gender and number.

Examples:

• Luca è andato a scuola - Luca went to school
• Lucia è andata a scuola - Lucia went to school
• Luca e Lucia sono andati a scuola - Luca and Lucia went to school
• Lucia e Luisa sono andate a scuola - Lucia and Luisa went ot school

Imperfect tense in Italian

This tense in Italian is called imperfetto.

The imperfetto is used to refer to a continued action that lasted an indefinite time in the past.

The imperfetto can be found with marker words such as mentre (while), da piccolo (when I was a child), quando avevo 5/10 anni (when I was 5/10 years old).

Regular verbs form the imperfetto by adding certain endings to the root of the verb:

1.  -are conjugarion: -avo, -avi, -ava. -avamo, -avate, -avano
2.  -ere conjugation: -evo, -evi, -eva, -evamo, -evate, -evano
3.  -ire conjugation: -ivo, -ivi, -iva, -ivamo, -ivate, -ivano

Examples:

• Noi mangiavamo una mela tutti i giorni - We used to eat an apple every day
• Voi giocavate sempre a calcio - You always used to play football

Irregular verbs have to be studied by heart because they do not follow grammatical rules:

• Fare (to do/make) - io facevo, tu facevi, egli faceva...
• Dire (to say) - io dicevo, tu dicevi, egli diceva...
• Bere (to drink) - io bevevo, tu bevevi, egli beveva...

Auxiliary verbs and the -are, -ere, -ire conjugations

Here is a chart to help you understand how the imperfetto is formed:

Past perfect in Italian

This compound tense in Italian is called trapassato prossimo.

This tense refers to:

1. an action that took place in the past
2. an action which had finished before another action took place.

Examples:

• Quando arrivai a casa il telefono aveva smesso di suonare - When I got home, the phone had stopped ringing
• Quando salii in macchina mi accorsi che avevo dimenticato le chiavi di casa - When I got in the car I realised i had forgotten my house keys. 

The trapassato prossimo is formed by:

Imperfetto of the auxiliary verb + past participle of the main verb

Some Italian verbs from the past participle in a regular way:

• Mangiare (to eat) - mangiato
• Credere (to believe) - creduto
• Partire (to leave) - partito

Some Italian verbs form the past participle in an irregular way so they have to be studied by heart:

• Dire (to say) - detto
• Fare (to do/make) - fatto
• Correggere (to correct) - corretto

Auxiliary verbs and the -are, -ere, -ire conjugations

Here is a chart to help you with the conjugation of verbs in the trapassato prossimo.

Remote past tense or absolute past tense

This tense in Italian is called passato remoto.

This tense is used to refer to an action that took place in the distant past.

This tense can be found with marker words such as 5/10 anni fa (5/10 years ago), l'anno scorso (last year), nel 1300/1500 (in 1300/1500).

Regular verbs form the passato remoto by adding certain endings to the root of the verb:

1.  -are conjugation: -ai, -asti ,-ò, -ammo, -aste, -arono 
2.  -ere conjugation: -ei/etti, -esti, -é/ette, -emmo, -este, -erono/ettero
3. -ire conjugation: -ii, -isti, -ì, -immo, -iste, -irono

Examples:

• Tu amasti molto quel libro - You really loved that book
• Voi temeste di aver perso le chiavi - You feared you had lost your keys

Irregular verbs change their conjugation for the first and third person singular (io, egli/ella) and for the third person plural (essi/esse) have to be studied by heart.

Some of these verbs have to be studied by heart:

• Cuocere (to cook) - io cossi, tu c(u)ocesti, egli cosse...
• Nascere (to be born) - io nacqui, tu nascesti, egli nacque...

Others fall within two categories:

1.  Verbs that end in -gliere, -ndere, -gere or -ggere usually form the passato remoto by adding the ending -si at the first person singular (io).
   E.g. Scendere (to get off/to descend) - io scesi, tu scendesti, esgli scese...
2. Verbs that double the last consonant of the root of the verb.
   E.g. Bere (to drink) - io bevvi, tu bevesti, egli bevve...

Auxiliary verbs and the -are, -ere, -ire conjugations

Here you can find a chart to understand how the passato remoto is formed:

Preterite perfect tense in Italian

This compound tense in Italian is called trapassato remoto.

This tense refers to an action that took place in the past before another action introduced by the passato remoto. This is why the trapassato remoto is usually found in subordinate clauses.

This tense can be found with marker words such as quando (when), non appena (as soon as), dopo che (after).

Examples:

• Non appena ebbe finito di mangiare, Giulia uscì di casa - As soon as Giulia had finished eating, she left the house
• Dopo che ebbe giocato tutto il giorno, si addormentò - After he had played all day long, he fell asleep.

The trapassato remoto is formed by:

Passato remoto of the auxiliary verb + past participle of the main verb

Some Italian verbs form the past participle in a regular way:

• Mangiare (to eat) - mangiato
• Credere (to believe) - creduto
• Dormire (to sleep) - dormito

Some Italian verbs form the past participle in an irregular way:

• Vedere (to see) - visto
• Aprire (to open) - aperto
• Scrivere (to write) - scritto
• Leggere (to read) - letto

Auxiliary verbs and the -are, -ere, -ire conjugations

Here you can find a chart to help you to understand how the trapassato remoto is formed: