The Italian remote past or passato remoto is a simple past tense like “I wrote.” If you like Italian literature and history, the passato remoto is your beacon — you’ll see this tense come up quite a bit!! However, in spoken Italian, passato remoto’s use varies by region: in Tuscany and Southern Italy you will hear passato remoto, while in the North you will hear more passato prossimo.
Let’s have a little ‘taste’ of this tense with the typical fairy-tale ending:
Or, on a more classical note, the most famous beginning verses of Dante’s Inferno:
- mi ritrovai per una selva oscura [...]
- I found myself in a dark wood [...]
Being from Tuscany, I love both Dante and the passato remoto, so let’s conquer it together! In this post we’ll cover when to use the passato remoto, how to form it, and some of the other tenses you can use to replace it. Let’s have a look!
When to use the ‘passato remoto’?
We use the passato remoto in a wide range of circumstances, including:
To refer to a completed past action, like the passato prossimo, but when the event occurred in the distant past, and has no serious effects on the present.
- passato remotoArrivai negli Stati Uniti nel 1992.Translation: I arrived in the States in 1992.
- passato remotoFinii le superiori nel 1985.Translation: I graduated from high school in 1985.
Notice, in the example below, how the passato remoto is used for the completed past action, while the imperfetto is used for descriptions of actions that were ongoing or recurrent in the past.
passato remotoimperfettoL’inverno se ne andò e si lasciò dietro i dolori reumatici.- Un leggero sole meridiano veniva a rallegrare le giornate [...]
Translation: Winter went by and left behind rheumatism.- A pale morning sun used to cheer up the days [...]
Marcovaldo, Italo Calvino.It’s commonly used in literature and when referring to historical events:
passato remotoLa Seconda Guerra Mondiale finì nel 1945.Translation: WWII finished in 1945.As already mentioned, in spoken Italian the easier passato prossimo is more commonly used in the northern regions, but from Tuscany down to the South of Italy, you often hear passato remoto even when referring to a more recent past!
passato remotoIeri preparai le lasagne.Translation: Yesterday, I prepared lasagna.
How to form the ‘passato remoto’?
To form the passato remoto of most Italian verbs, you’ll remove the infinitive ending of the verb and replace it with a special passato remoto ending. However, the ending you use will depend on which infinitive ending a verb has (-are, -ere, or -ire), and there are also several irregular verbs to learn. Let’s have a look at the regular verbs first.
Regular verbs in ‘passato remoto’
Like other simple tenses, you can form the regular passato remoto by dropping the infinitive ending (-are / -ere / -ire) and adding the passato remoto ending that corresponds to the subject.
| Subject Pronoun | comprare meaning to buy | credere meaning to believe | dormire meaning to sleep |
|---|---|---|---|
io | compr-ai | cred-ei OR cred-etti | dorm-ii* |
tu | compr-asti | cred-esti | dorm-isti |
lui/lei/Lei | compr-ò | cred-è OR cred-ette | dorm-ì |
noi | compr-ammo | cred-emmo | dorm-immo |
voi | compr-aste | cred-este | dorm-iste |
loro | compr-arono | cred-erono OR cred-ettero | dorm-irono |
Here’s a tip I learned from my grade-school teacher! If you remove only the -re from the infinitive ending, then the endings for ‑are, ‑ere, and ‑ire verbs are almost all the same! Grazie, Sig.ra Cara! meaning Thank you, Mrs. Cara!
Now let’s see some examples in sentences. Notice that the form you use will depend on the pronoun you’d use for the subject:
Irregular verbs in the ‘passato remoto’
There are two common features of irregular verbs in the passato remoto:
They’ll have two different stems: one for io, lui-lei, loro, and another for tu, noi, voi.
They’ll use irregular endings for io, lui-lei, loro, but the regular endings for tu, noi, voi
Not all verbs fit perfectly into this pattern, but a lot of them will.
Don’t worry! Even Italian native speakers rely heavily on hearing, reading, and dictionaries to recognize the irregular stems of the passato remoto.
Here are three common irregular verbs in the passato remoto. Do you see the patterns we discussed above?
| Subject Pronoun | fare meaning made | scrivere meaning wrote | venire meaning came |
|---|---|---|---|
io | feci | scrissi | venni |
tu | facesti | scrivesti | venisti |
lui/lei/Lei | fece | scrisse | venne |
noi | facemmo | scrivemmo | venimmo |
voi | faceste | scriveste | veniste |
loro | fecero | scrissero | vennero |
Notice that:
The endings for tu, noi, and voi are -sti, -mmo, and -ste, which are just the regular endings for the passato remoto.
The endings for io, lui, lei, Lei, loro are -i, -e, and -ero, which are different!
Each verb uses two different stems:
Infinitive For io, lui, lei, Lei, loro For tu, noi, voi farefec-face-scriverescriss-scrive-venirevenn-veni-
Here’s another example of this stem split: dire meaning to say, to tell:
Some irregular verbs, like dare meaning to give will have two different possible io/lui/lei/loro forms that are used interchangeably. But there will still be a totally different stem for tu/noi/voi. For example:
‘Essere’ (to be) and ‘avere’ (to have) in the ‘passato remoto’
Obviously, essere and avere are also irregular in the passato remoto. But even these verbs will follow the two-stem pattern from above!
| Infinitive | For io, lui, lei, Lei, loro | For tu, noi, voi |
|---|---|---|
essere | fu- | fo- |
avere | ebb- | ave- |
Here’s a chart with their full conjugations. Keep these handy when you get into more advanced tenses like the trapassato remoto or the passive voice!
| Subject Pronoun | essere meaning was/were | avere meaning had |
|---|---|---|
io | fui | ebbi |
tu | fosti | avesti |
lui/lei/Lei | fu | ebbe |
noi | fummo | avemmo* |
voi | foste | aveste* |
loro | furono | ebbero |
What tenses to use instead of the the ‘passato remoto’?
In the second half of the 20th century, authors started to use the so-called “historical” present tense or just the passato prossimo in places where they’d once used the passato remoto.
Historical present / Presente storico
Some authors prefer to use the present tense to make a narration more lively. It’s as if you were there!
Passato prossimo
This is the most common substitution to the passato remoto. Using this tense lets you avoid all the irregularities, though you lose the nuance of the historical ‘distance’ in time. It’s frequently used in spoken Italian, but authors are starting to use it in their novels as well.
Summing up
The passato remoto is your key to mastering Italian, reading Italian novels, and talking about history like a pro! It’s considered the most challenging tense to learn, even for Italian speakers! So don’t despair, remember these strategies to recognize and understand it:
Regular verbs mostly take these endings, where V is the first vowel of the infinitive ending -are / -ere / -ire
Subject Pronoun Ending ioVituVstilui/lei/LeiV̀noiVmmovoiVsteloroVronoMost verbs in -are and -ire are regular, but irregular verbs will usually have two stems: one for io/lui/lei/Lei/loro and one for tu/noi/voi → When in doubt, check your dictionary!
Want to show off what you learned? Let’s practice the Italian passato remoto now!
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