Read this page, then try this practice.
The passato remoto is another past tense. It will help you most with readings. It is a narrative tense, used to recount historical events or actions in the distant past, and is used often in books and newspapers. In northern and central Italy, it is not nearly as widespread in spoken Italian as the passato prossimo, whereas in the South, it is common in spoken Italian as well. For most of you, it will be more important to understand the use of this tense and to recognize the forms as you read than to actively reproduce them in conversation or on tests.
Forms
There are three types of passato remoto verbs:
- those with regular forms, following a pattern of endings that only vary slightly among verb classes (-are, -ere, and -ire), including verbs like parlare, credere and finire.
- those with completely irregular forms, such as essere and avere
- those with partially irregular forms, that is, a combination of regular and irregular forms, in verbs such as fare, dare, vedere, and leggere. In these verbs, the io, lui/lei, and loro forms are irregular – following a pattern of stem changes established by the io form, while the tu, noi and voi forms are regular.
Check out the following conjugations.
| regular | totally irregular | partially irregular | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| parlare | credere | finire | essere | fare | avere | scrivere | |
| io | parlai | credei | finii | fui | feci | ebbi | scrissi |
| tu | parlasti | credesti | finisti | fosti | facesti | avesti | scrivesti |
| lui/lei | parlò | credè | finì | fu | fece | ebbe | scrisse |
| noi | parlammo | credemmo | finimmo | fummo | facemmo | avemmo | scrivemmo |
| voi | parlaste | credeste | finiste | foste | faceste | aveste | scriveste |
| loro | parlarono | crederono | finirono | furono | fecero | ebbero | scrissero |
Check out the regular verbs. You see that the endings are very similar from one verb class (-are, -ere,
-ire) to the next, with the variation found in a vowel.
With the partially irregular verbs, the irregularities are found in what’s called a 1-3-3 pattern: (1st person singular: io; 3rd person singular: lui/lei; 3rd person plural: loro).
✽ For the conjugations of irregular verbs in the passato remoto, have a look at these verb charts.
Passato Remoto Verb Charts
Regular Verbs
| parlare | ricevere | dormire | |
|---|---|---|---|
| io | parlai | ricevetti / ricevei | dormii |
| tu | parlasti | ricevesti | dormisti |
| lui/lei | parlo’ | ricevette / riceve’ | dormi’ |
| noi | parlammo | ricevemmo | dormimmo |
| voi | parlaste | riceveste | dormiste |
| loro | parlarono | ricevettero / riceverono | dormirono |
Totally Irregular Verbs
| bere | dare | dire | essere | fare | stare | tradurre | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| io | bevvi | diedi | dissi | fui | feci | stetti | tradussi |
| tu | bevesti | desti | dicesti | fosti | facesti | stesti | traducesti |
| lui/lei | bevve | diede | disse | fu | fece | stette | tradusse |
| noi | bevemmo | demmo | dicemmo | fummo | facemmo | stemmo | traducemmo |
| voi | beveste | deste | diceste | foste | faceste | steste | traduceste |
| loro | bevvero | diedero | dissero | furono | facero | stettero | tradussero |
Partially Irregular Verbs
| avere | leggere | mettere | nascere | sapere | scrivere | venire | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| io | ebbi | lessi | misi | nacqui | seppi | scrissi | venni |
| tu | avesti | leggesti | mettesti | nascesti | sapesti | scrivesti | venisti |
| lui/lei | ebbe | lesse | mise | nacque | seppe | scrisse | venne |
| noi | avemmo | leggemmo | mettemmo | nascemmo | sapemmo | scrivemmo | venimmo |
| voi | aveste | leggeste | metteste | nasceste | sapeste | scriveste | veniste |
| loro | ebbero | lessero | misero | nacquero | seppero | scrissero | vennero |
There are many others, including the list that follows. With the io and tu forms, you may easily derive the others:
| io | tu | |
|---|---|---|
| cadere | caddi | cadesti |
| chiedere | chiesi | chiedesti |
| conoscere | conobbi | conoscesti |
| correggere | corressi | correggesti |
| decidere | decisi | decidesti |
| dipingere | dipinsi | dipingesti |
| discutere | discussi | discutesti |
| perdere | persi | perdesti |
| piacere | piacqui | piacesti |
| piangere | piansi | piangesti |
| prendere | presi | prendesti |
| ridere | risi | ridesti |
| rimanere | rimasi | rimanesti |
| rispondere | risposi | rispondesti |
| scendere | scesi | scendesti |
| succedere | successi | succedesti |
| tenere | tenni | tenesti |
| vedere | vidi | vedesti |
| vivere | vissi | vivesti |
✽ The -ere verbs actually have a set of alternative endings, that you will certainly come across frequently in your readings. They would be helpful to recognize too, and follow the 1-3-3 partially irregular pattern:
| credere |
|---|
| credetti (or credei) |
| credesti |
| credette (or crede’) |
| credemmo |
| credeste |
| credettero (or crederono) |
✽ Don’t underestimate the importance of accents in this tense, to be observed in writing and speaking! Remember, one accent can make the difference between tense and subject:
- lavoro = I work (present tense)
- lavorò = He worked (passato remoto)
✽ Like the passato prossimo, the passato remoto is used in tandem with the imperfetto (imperfect). The passato remoto is a narrative tense that recounts unique completed actions or events, while the imperfect is a descriptive tense, used to describe repeated or habitual actions, actions in progress, or states of mind, body, weather, time, etc. You can use the same logic and set of rules that you used to distinguish between the passato prossimo and imperfetto and apply them to the new choice between passato remoto and imperfetto.
Passato Remoto: Practice