Preterite perfect tense (trapassato remoto) in Italian

The preterite perfect (trapassato remoto) is a compound tense that belongs to the indicative mood.

Definition and usage of the preterite perfect tense (trapassato remoto) in Italian

The trapassato remoto is usually used in literary contexts. In everyday language* it is rarely used, except in very formal contexts.

*In everyday language the trapassato remoto is usually replaced with the passato remoto or the trapassato prossimo.

The trapassato remoto refers to an action that took place in the past before another action introduced by the passato remoto.
Therefore, the trapassato remoto can be usually found in subordinate clauses.

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Marker words that indicate the trapassato remoto

The trapassato remoto can be introduced by the following marker words:

Examples:

• Non appena ebbe finito di piovere, il lupo andò a dormire (As soon as it had stopped raining, the wolf went to sleep).
• Quando ebbe finito di lavorare, gli chiesi informazioni sull'evento che stava organizzando (When he had finished to work, I asked him some information on the event he was planning).

Conjugation of the trapassato remoto

Th trapassato remoto is formed as follows:

Passato remoto of the auxiliary verb essere/avere + participio passato (past participle) of the main verb

Conjugation of regular verbs in the trapassato remoto

Here you can find three examples of regular verbs in the trapassato remoto tense.

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 dormire (to sleep)

Conjugation of irregular verbs in the trapassato remoto

Verbs that form the participio passato irregularly, have to be studied by heart.
Here are some examples:

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

Auxiliary verbs: essere/avere

The auxiliary verbs form the trapassato prossimo as follows:

Examples:

• Non appena ebbi avuto notizie da Luca, parlai con Caterina (As soon as I got news from Luca, I talked to Caterina)
• Quando ebbi avuto modo di andare in libreria, comprai un libro (When I had tha chance to go to the bookshop, I bought a book)

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