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Italian Grammar Lessons: Past Perfect

The past perfect, in Italian as in English, is used to show that a past event or state happened prior to a past reference point.

It’s formed using the auxiliary verb ‘avere’ or ‘essere’ in the imperfect tense, and the past participle of the main verb.

Below are the conjunctions of ‘essere’, ‘avere’, and an example verb from each of the three main groups.

Remember that when you use the auxiliary verb ‘essere, the past participle needs to ‘agree’ with the gender and singular or plural nature of the subject.

essere [to be]

io ero stato/a
tu eri stato/a
lui/lei era stato/a
noi eravamo stati/e
voi eravate stati/e
loro erano stati/e

avere [to have]

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

First group, -are

magiare [to eat]

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

Second group, -ere

bere [to drink]

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

Third group, -ire

venire [to come]

io ero venuto/a
tu eri venuto/a
lui/lei era venuto/a
noi eravamo venuti/e
voi eravate venuti/e
loro erano venuti/e

Here’s a text with some examples of the past perfect. To help you see the pattern of use, I’ve underlined the ‘reference point’ verb (which uses the past tense, NOT the past perfect). I’ve then put the ‘prior time’ past perfect verbs in italics.

“Il signor Rizzoli, prima di partire per una vacanza, ha lasciato alla sua segretaria una lista di cose da fare. Quando è tornato ha scoperto che la signorina Giuliano non aveva aperto la posta, si era dimenticata di contattare il professor Mizzi, non aveva letto le mail, aveva trascorso il tempo facendo solo cruciverba e non era andata in banca.”

And here’s a rough translation.

“Before leaving for a holiday, Mr. Rizzoli left his secretary a list of things to do. When he got back, he found that Miss Giuliano hadn’t opened the post, had forgotten to contact Professor Mizzi and hadn’t read the emails. She‘d spent the time doing crosswords and hadn’t been to the bank.”

In this rare case, the similarity in the way the tenses are used in Italian and English is striking!

Back to Italian lesson on: past perfect

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