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What is the ‘trapassato prossimo’ in Italian?

By: Silvia Giorgini Althoen Fri Aug 30 2024
Italian
Verbs, Indicative Mood

The trapassato prossimo (in English known as the “pluperfect” or “past perfect”) is an Italian past tense used to express an action that had already happened before another one: think of it as the past of the past! Just like the English past perfect (“had verb-ed”), it is a compound tense. Don’t worry, if you know how to use the imperfetto of essere(to be) and avere(to have) and if you know how to form the passato prossimo you are ready to...reminisce! It’s quite simple to form!

In this post we’ll teach you how to form the trapassato prossimo in Italian, and when to use it. Let’s see how!

Table of Contents

    How to use the ‘trapassato prossimo’ in Italian?

    To use the trapassato prossimo, combine an auxiliary (essere(to be)or avere(to have)), conjugated in the l'imperfetto, with the past participle. See? It’s very much like forming the passato prossimo or other Italian compound tenses.

    Tip

    Let’s consider these two examples:

    • essere (imperfetto)past participle

      Ricordo che eri appena arrivato quando Sara ha chiamato.

      I remember you had just arrived when Sara called.

    • avere (imperfetto)past participle

      Sono arrivata alle 7 e Maria aveva già preparato cena.

      I arrived at 7 and Maria had already made dinner.

    These two examples, eri appena arrivato and aveva già preparato, both represent actions that happened before another moment in the past:

    • You had already arrived before Sara called

    • Maria had already made dinner before I arrived

    This is why we use the trapassato prossimo.

    Tip

    Often the trapassato prossimo is introduced with expressions such as dopo che(after), appena(just), prima di(before), già(already), etc. These expressions are usually placed between the auxiliary and the past participle, as shown in the examples above.

    In Italian, there are different ways to talk about past events:

    • we can use the imperfetto when talking about recurring or ongoing events in the past

    • we can use the passato prossimo when talking about events that are concluded

    The trapassato prossimo works with both kinds of actions: as the past of the past! Let’s see how to do it!

    A useful way to learn this tense is to think about choosing a path and following the steps to your destination: trapassato prossimo. The path you take depends on whether the verb uses essere(to be) or avere(to have).

    Path 1: How to form the past perfect with ‘essere’?

    To form the trapassato prossimo of a verb that uses essere, use the formula below:

    essere(to be)

    (in imperfetto)

    past participle

    (agrees)

    Ricordo che eri appena arrivato quando Sara ha chiamato.

    I remember you had just arrived when Sara called.

    Let’s begin by learning the conjugation of the verb essere(to be) in the imperfetto:

    io ero
    noi eravamo
    tu eri
    voi eravate
    lei/lui/Lei era
    loro erano

    As with the passato prossimo, the verb essere is then combined with a past participle. Let’s go over how to use the past participles with the verb essere.

    Tip

    Italian past participles are equivalent to English expressions with “verb+ed.” In Italian they mostly end in:

    -ato
    arrivato(arrived)
    -uto
    creduto(believed)
    -ito
    pulito(cleaned)

    But in Italian, and in English, there are some irregular past participles, for example:

    • aperto(opened)

    • chiuso(closed)

    • detto(said, told)

    Check out this longer list of irregular past participles in Italian or review this table of tips on how to form the irregular past participle.

    Important

    As in other compound tenses, when you use essere as the auxiliary verb, the past participle agrees in gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural) with the subject of the sentence:

    Feminine Singular
    Feminine Plural
    Masculine Singular
    Masculine Plural

    Maria era arrivata prima di Lucia.

    Maria had arrived before Lucia.

    Maria e Lucia erano arrivate prima di te.

    Maria and Lucia had arrived before you.

    Mario era arrivato prima di Lucio.

    Mario had arrived before Lucio.

    Mario e Lucio erano arrivati prima di te.

    Mario and Lucio had arrived before you.

    Remember, all reflexive verbs in Italian use essere, so with a reflexive verb, the past participle will always agree!

    I bambini si erano lavati le mani prima di mangiare.

    The children washed their hands before eating.

    Now that we know how to conjugate essere in the imperfetto and how to use the past participles, let’s see how to form the trapassato prossimo. Let's go back to our initial example. If you want to say “I remember you had just arrived when Sarah called” in Italian, here are the steps to follow.

    • The verb “arrive” translates to arrivare, which uses essere, so we follow path 1!

    • We ask: who is the subject? → tu(you, masculine singular)

    • Choose the tu form of essere in the imperfettotu eri

    • Add the past participle of arrivare, and make it agree with the subject → tu eri arrivato

    • And then add it all together to form the final sentence:

      essere (imperfetto)past participle

      Ricordo che eri appena arrivato quando Sara ha chiamato.

      I remember you had just arrived when Sara called.

    Path 2: How to form the past perfect with ‘avere’?

    To form the trapassato prossimo(past perfect) with avere(have) follow the formula below.

    avere(to have)

    (in imperfetto)

    past participle

    (usually without agreement)

    Sono arrivata alle 7 e Maria aveva già preparato cena.

    I arrived at 7 and Maria had already made dinner.

    Let’s go over the conjugation for avere in the imperfetto:

    io avevo
    noi avevamo
    tu avevi
    voi avevate
    lei/lui aveva
    loro avevano

    So let’s go through the steps to follow if you want to say something like “I arrived at 7 and Maria had already made dinner.”

    • The verb “make” here is best translated with preparare(to prepare/make), which takes the auxiliary verb avere, so we follow path 2!

    • We ask, who is the subject? → Maria (feminine singular)

    • We choose the lei form of avere conjugated in imperfettoMaria aveva

    • Add the past participle of preparare (without agreement) → Maria aveva preparato

    • Put it together into a complete sentence!

      avere (imperfetto)past participle

      Sono arrivata alle 7 e Maria aveva già preparato cena.

      I arrived at 7 and Maria had already made dinner.

    Exception!

    You may recall that in compound tenses, if the verb is formed with avere you can skip the gender agreement on the past participle, unless you have a direct object pronoun. In this case the past participle agrees in gender and number with the direct object pronoun:

    Maria aveva comprato le fragole. Le aveva comprate al mercato.

    Maria had bought strawberries. She had bought them at the market.

    Le is a feminine plural direct object pronoun, so the past participle is in its feminine plural form
    Tip

    Use the trapassato prossimo to sound polite:

    Ti avevo portato una torta.

    I just got you a cake.

    When to use the ‘trapassato prossimo’ in Italian

    As we saw above, we mostly use the trapassato prossimo to talk about something that was finished before another past event or moment. But in spoken Italian, you can sometimes hear other uses of the trapassato prossimo. For example:

    • Setting the background in narratives:

      Similarly to the use of imperfetto, you can use the trapassato in narrative for descriptions in the past of the past:

      Gianni aveva lavorato tutto il giorno.

      Gianni had worked all day.

    • Replying to an implied past reference:

      The trapassato can sometimes be used independently in a sentence as long as the reference to the past is understood from context.

      Bello il film. Non l’avevo ancora visto.

      Great film! I hadn’t seen it before.

    Summing up

    The trapassato prossimo is your ally when you want to talk about past events that happened before another event in the past, just remember to:

    • use two words: auxiliary (essere/avere) + past participle,

    • check if the verb takes essere or avere and use them in the imperfetto,

    • remember that the past participle matches in gender (feminine/masculine) and number (singular/plural) if the verbs follow the imperfetto of essere + past participle “path.”

    Ready to follow the paths to success with these activities? Andiamo!(Let's go!)

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