Italian grammar · Intermediate (B1)
The trapassato prossimo: had done
How to form the trapassato prossimo, when to use it in a story, and how it works when you report what someone said.
How it's formed
The is the Italian “had done”. It's the of or + the past participle: (I had eaten), (I had left).
or , and the agreement of the participle, follow the same rules as in the passato prossimo. Reflexive verbs use : (I had got up). Words like (already) and (never, ever) go between the two parts: .
| Person | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| / | / | ||
| / | / | ||
| / | / | / | |
| / | / | ||
| / | / | ||
| / | / |
When to use it
Use it for something that happened before another moment in the past. That later moment is usually in the passato prossimo or the imperfetto: (When I got to the station, the train had already left).
English often uses the simple past instead: (I was tired because I'd worked all day, or because I worked all day). In Italian, the trapassato makes the order of events clear.
- Non avevo mai visto il mare prima.I had never seen the sea before.
- Mi ha offerto un caffè, perché avevo lasciato l'ombrello al negozio.He bought me a coffee, because I'd left my umbrella at the shop.
- Quando siamo arrivati, la festa era già finita.When we arrived, the party had already finished.
In reported speech
After a past verb like , the tenses of the original words move one step back. The present becomes the imperfetto, and the passato prossimo becomes the trapassato prossimo: “” → (He said he had lost his keys).
The future becomes the condizionale passato: “” → (He said he would come). After (says), in the present, nothing changes.
| The original words | Reported with … |
|---|---|
| “” | |
| “” | |
| “” | |
| “” |