The remote past expresses an action or fact that occurred and concluded in the past:
- Cristoforo Colombo scoprì l’America nel 1492.
- Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492.
- Mio padre emigrò in Francia quando ero piccolo
- My father emigrated to France when I was little.
- Un giorno la mia amica decise di andarsene.
- One day my friend decided to leave.
1. The forma of the remote past
The remote past of regular verbs is formed by changing the ending of the infinitive according to this model:
Person | -are | -ere | -ire |
io tu lui/lei noi voi loro | -ai -asti -ò -ammo -aste -arono | -etti/-ei -esti -ette/ -è -emmo -este -ettero/ -erono | -ii -isti -ì -immo -iste -irono |
2. Uses or the remote past
The remote past is a perfect tense and is used to express:
- Completed situation: the perfect tense (remote past) indicates a concluded fact, without any connection to the present, and which occurred at a precise moment in the past.
- In quell’occasione fui ottimista e mi rovinai.
- On that occasion I was optimistic and I was ruined.
- Il nostro giardino era bello, splendido, ma il troppo sole e l’incuria Io distrussero.
- Our garden was beautiful, splendid, but too much sun and neglect destroyed it.
- Finished/concluded action: past action included in a specific period of time.
- L’anno scorso andai a sciare occasione del mio compleanno.
- Last year I went skiing for my birthday.
- Mario per quell’esame. studiò molto, ora non studia più.
- Mario for that exam. he studied a lot, now he no longer studies.
- Detached actions in succession (narrative-chronicle): the actions take place one after the other as detached elements or as captions of narrative dialogues.
- Il cacciatore prese la mira, puntò poi sparò.
- The hunter took aim, aimed, then shot.
- Disse …aggiunse… rispose.
- He said…added…answered.
- Actions that remain linked to a historical moment, anchored to the past.
- Sposò Francesca nell”83 (non sono più sposati).
- He married Francesca in ’83 (they are no longer married).
- Comprai quella macchina 20 anni fa (non ce l’ho più).
- I bought that car 20 years ago (I no longer have it).
- Dante nacque nel 1265 e morì nel 1321.
- Dante was born in 1265 and died in 1321.
- Lo incontrai, una volta, ma oggi non saprei riconoscerlo.
- I met him once, but today I couldn’t recognize him.
- Mio nonno da giovane ebbe il tifo.
- My grandfather had typhus when he was young.
- Actions inscribed in a definitively past and distant period of time with adverbs and temporal expressions: allora (then), un tempo (once), una volta (once), dieci anni fa (ten years ago), nel’48 (in ’48).
- Nel 29 ci fu una gravissima crisi finanziaria.
- In 1929 there was a very serious financial crisis.
- Tre anni fa andai al mare in Grecia.
- Three years ago I went to the seaside in Greece.
- Una volta andammo a trovarlo, ma si era già trasferito.
- We went to visit him once, but he had already moved away.
- Defined action: circumscribed action relating to well-defined circumstances.
- Cristoforo Colombo scoprì l’America nel 1492 (quasi per caso e proprio in quell’occasione).
- Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492 (almost by chance and precisely on that occasion).
But to indicate an action carried out a long time ago, the effects of which remain in the present we use the present perfect (passato prossimo):
- Cristoforo Colombo ha scoperto l’America.
- Christopher Columbus discovered America.