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When I started this website, I had already been to Italy.

Simply put, the “had already been” is the trapassato prossimo tense in English.

“Trapassato prossimo” sounds incredibly fancy and difficult when it comes to tenses in the Italian language and is considered to be at a more advanced level.

In order to understand it, you have to know how to use the passato prossimo for both essere and avere, the imperfect, and past reflexive verbs.

However, if you’ve been playing with the Italian language for a while and know those tenses well, it’s no more difficult than learning which order and which situations to use it in.

When to Use the Trapassato Prossimo

As you read in the first example, you use this tense in a similar way to when you would use it in English – to talk about something that happened in the past before something else happened in the past.

When I started this website [in the past], I had already been [even further in the past] to Italy.

How to Put the Trapassato Prossimo Together

There are three paths for using this tense.

Path 1: If you’re using a verb like “andare”, which takes the verb “essere” in the past tense, here’s what you can do:

Example: I had already left

— Identify who the subject of the sentence is. In this example, I’ll use “I” for a female.

— Use the imperfect conjugation of “essere”.

Ero – I was

Eri – You were

Era – He/she/it was

Eravamo – We were

Eravate – You all were

Erano – They were

— Use the past tense of the verb “partire”, which is “partita” for a female.

— Put it together adding the word “già/already” before “partita”.

— Ero già partita = I had left

In a full sentence, it might look like:

Quando mia madre è venuta a casa mia, ero già partita. – When my mom came to my house, I had already left.

Path 2: If you’re using a verb like “parlare”, which takes the verb “avere” in the past tense, here’s what you would do:

Example: I had already talked to Marco.

— Identify who the subject of the sentence is. In this example, I’ll use “I” for a male.

— Use the imperfect conjugation of “avere”.

Avevo – I had

Avevi – You had

Aveva – He/she/it had

Avevamo – We had

Avevate – You (all) had

Avevano – They had

— Use the past tense of the verb “parlare”, which is “parlato” regardless of whether it’s a male or a female.

— Put it together, adding the word “già/already” before “parlato”.

— Avevo già parlato = I had already talked

In context, this might look like:

Quando Maria mi ha detto della festa di Marco, avevo già parlato con lui. – When Maria talked to me about Marco, I had already spoken with him.

Path 3: If you’re using a reflexive verb, like “sedersi”, you would use “essere” in the past tense.

Example: I had already sat down.

— Identify who the subject of the sentence is. In this example, I’ll use “I” for a male.

— Use the reflexive imperfect conjugation of “essere”.

Mi ero – I (myself) was

Ti eri – You (yourself) were

Si era – He/she/it (himself/herself/itself) was

Ci eravamo – We (ourselves) were

Vi eravate – You (yourselves) were

Si erano – They (themselves) were

— Use the past tense of the verb “sedersi”, which is “seduto” for a male.

— Put it together adding the word “già/already” before “seduto”.

— Mi ero già seduto. = I had already sat down.

In context, this might look like:

Mi ero già seduto quando Marco mi ha chiesto di preparare un caffé. – I had already sat down when Marco asked me to prepare a coffee.

Here are some more examples:

— Quando ho sentito il telefono squillare ero già partita sul treno. – When I heard the phone ringing, I had already left on the train.

— Sono andata a controllare ma la luce era già stata spenta. – I went to check, but the light had already been turned off.

— Quando iniziò a raccontarmi il fatto avevo già capito cosa voleva dirmi. – When he started telling me the story, I already had understood what he wanted to tell me.

— Dopo due ore su quell’aereo ci eravamo già raccontati tutte le nostre vite. – After two hours on that plane, we had already told our life stories.

Your task:

Write three sentences using the trapassato prossimo tense and post it on Lang-8 or Italki to be corrected by native speakers for free. Learn how to do that here if you’re unfamiliar.

Questions/comments? Leave them below!

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