Conjugating regular Italian verbs in the Trapassato Prossimo
The Trapassato Prossimo is used for an action that happened before another one in the past. The other past tenses may be used for the other action meaning, passato prossimo, passato remoto, imperfect, etc. The Trapassato Prossimo ("Past Perfect" or "Pluperfect") is formed by using either the verb essere or avere in the imperfect tense followed by the past participle of the verb you want to use. For Example if you wanted to say "I ate after he arrived" you would first identify which action happened first. In this case it is "he arrived" thus this is the verb that needs to be conjugated in the trapassato prossimo (the other or "I ate" in the passato prossimo). You would first conjugate essere in the imperfect tense and then follow it with arrivato, the past participle for arrivare. With the subject pronouns included it would look like this;Io ho mangiato dopo lui era arrivato.
Regular past participles are easy to form. You simple remove the infinitive ending and apply the past participle ending as shown below;
Verbs ending in ARE use ATO, for example; mangiare - are = mangi + ato = mangiato
Verbs ending in ERE use UTO, for example; credere - ere = cred + uto = creduto
Verbs ending in IRE use ITO, for example; finire - ire = fin + ito = finito
There are many verbs that use an irregular past participle. These you will need to commit to memory and many of these can be found on pages 54 & 55 of Italian Verb Drills by Paola Nanni-Tate I like to use math equations as an example of conjugating verbs in various tenses but first here are the past participle endings for all regular verbs;
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Verbs ending in ARE ato |
Verbs ending in ERE uto |
Verbs ending in IRE ito |
To conjugate the regular ARE verbs in the trapassato prossimo = conjugated auxiliary verb + (infinitive verb – infinitive ending = verb stem + past participle ending) = conjugated verb. Example;
Avevamo (to have for we in the imperfect) + [Parlare (To Speak) - are = Parl + ato (past pariciple ending)] = Avevamo Parlato (we had spoken)
Parlare conjugated in the trapassato prossimo
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Io Tu Lui/Lei Noi Voi Loro |
avevo parlato avevi parlato aveva parlato avevamo parlato avevate parlato avevano parlato |
I had spoken You had spoken He/She/It had spoken We had spoken Y'all had spoken They had spoken |
To conjugate the regular ERE verbs in the trapassato prossimo = conjugated auxiliary verb + (infinitive verb – infinitive ending = verb stem + past participle ending) = conjugated verb. Example;
Avevamo (to have for we in the imperfect) + [Credere (To Believe) - ere = Cred + uto (past pariciple ending)] = Avevamo Creduto (we had believed)
Credere conjugated in the trapassato prossimo
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Io Tu Lui/Lei Noi Voi Loro |
avevo creduto avevi creduto aveva creduto avevamo creduto avevate creduto avevano creduto |
I had believed You had believed He/She/It had believed We had believed Y'all had believed They had believed |
To conjugate the regular IRE verbs in the trapassato prossimo = conjugated auxiliary verb + (infinitive verb – infinitive ending = verb stem + past participle ending) = conjugated verb. Example;
Avevamo (to have for we in the imperfect) + [Sentire (To Hear) - ire = Sent + ito (past pariciple ending)] = Avevamo Sentito (we have heard)
Sentire conjugated in the trapassato prossimo
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Io Tu Lui/Lei Noi Voi Loro |
avevo sentito avevi sentito aveva sentito avevamo sentito avevate sentito avevano sentito |
I had heard You had heard He/She/It had heard We had heard Y'all had heard They had heard |
Choosing the correct auxiliary verb when using the Trapassato Prossimo
The selection of which auxiliary verb to use with the Trapassato Prossimo is the same as the Passato Prossimo:
"1. All transitive verbs (the verbs which can take a direct object...) use the auxiliary avere.
2. All reflexive verbs use the auxiliary essere ...
3. Intrasitive verbs ... can use avere or essere ..."
Due to the third point, some memory work is required to determine which verbs use essere. You can find a list of common verbs conjugated with Essere in the Passato Prossimo on page 53 of the book Verb Drills by Paola Nanni-Tate
It is important to note here than when you use a verb in the the Trapassato Prossimo as with the Passato Prossimo with the verb essere, the past participle must agree with the subject in gender and number. For example the verb andare or "to go"
Lui era andato (he had gone) or Lei era andata (she had gone)
Gli uomini sono andanti (the men went) or Le donne sono andate (the women went)
As is always the case with gender when the plural subject is a mix of masculine and feminine you use the masculine. Now lets look at the verb Andare in the trapassato prossimo = conjugated auxiliary verb + (infinitive verb – infinitive ending = verb stem + past participle ending that agrees in gender and number) = conjugated verb. Example;
eravamo (to be for we in the imperfect) + [Andare (To go) - are = And + ati (past pariciple ending for masculine plural)] = eravamo Andati (We had gone)
Andare conjugated in the passato prossimo
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Io Tu Lui/Lei Noi Voi Loro |
ero andato or andata eri andato or andata era andato or andata eravamo andati or andate eravate andati or andate erano andati or andate |
I had gone You had gone He/She/It had gone We had gone Y'all had gone They had gone |
As with all other tenses, there are verbs that are irregular by having irregular past participles. These past participles will have to be committed to memory in order to learn them. A list of the more common irregular past participles can be found on pages 54 & 55 of the book Verb Drills by Paola Nanni-Tate
| You can learn more about the trapassato prossimo tense of Italian verbs on pages 83 - 85 of the book "English Grammar for Students of Italian" by Sergio Adorni and Karen Primorac, copyright 1995. If you do not own this book, don't worry, it is not mandatory that you do. However, it can be very useful in a lot of ways and if you would like to know more about this book and where to buy it, click on the graphic link to the right or simply go to our online bookstore. | You can learn more about the trapassato prossimo tense of Italian verbs on pages 192 & 193 (page #'s may vary as I have an older edition) of "Ciao", copyright 1986. If you do not own this book, don't worry, it is not mandatory that you do. However, it can be very useful in a lot of ways and if you would like to know more about this book and where to buy it, click on the graphic link to the right or simply go to our online bookstore. | You can learn more about the trapassato prossimo tense of Italian verbs on pages 61 - 64 of "Italian Verb Drills" by Paola Nanni-Tate, copyright 2011. If you do not own this book, don't worry, it is not mandatory that you do. However, it can be very useful in a lot of ways and if you would like to know more about this book and where to buy it, click on the graphic link to the right or simply go to our online bookstore. |
