Grammar: Verbs - Past Tenses – GCSE Italian Edexcel Revision

Grammar: Verbs - Past Tenses

The passato prossimo is used in Italian to talk about completed actions that took place in the recent past. It is similar to the English simple past.
This tense is constructed using a present tense auxiliary verb (avere or essere) and the past participle of the main verb. For instance, ‘ho mangiato’ (I have eaten) or ‘sono andato’ (I have gone).
Most verbs use the auxiliary ‘avere’. However some, especially verbs of motion or change, use ‘essere’.
With verbs that use ‘essere’, the past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject. For example, ‘Lei è partita’ (She has left), ‘Loro sono partiti’ (They have left).

The imperfetto is used in Italian to talk about ongoing or incomplete actions in the past. It’s similar to the English past progressive (was/were + verb-ing).
To form the imperfetto, drop the ‘-are’, ‘-ere’, or ‘-ire’ from the verb and add the correct ending (-vo, -vi, -va, -vamo, -vate, -vano).
For instances, ‘lavoravo’ means ‘I was working’, ‘correva’ means ‘he/she was running’ and so on.

The trapassato prossimo is used to talk about actions that happened before other past actions. It is equivalent to the English past perfect tense (had + past participle).
The trapassato prossimo is made up of the imperfetto of the auxiliary verb (avere or essere) and the past participle of the main verb. For example, ‘avevo mangiato’ (I had eaten) or ‘ero andato’ (I had gone).

Ensure to understand when to use avere and when to use essere as the auxiliary verb in the passato prossimo and trapassato prossimo.
Remember the importance of agreement in gender and number with the past participle when using the auxiliary verb ‘essere’.
Get to grips with the distinction between use of imperfetto and passato prossimo when talking about past events.
Concentrate on properly forming each of the three past tenses and knowing when to use each one.