Passato remoto in Italian

The passato remoto in Italian is the third most common past tense in the everyday language (the first would be the passato prossimo and the second the imperfetto), so it’s very important that you learn it well if you want to talk about past events with your Italian friends.

Il bambino sorrise.
The child smiled.

In this lesson, we will see how to form and when to use the passato remoto in Italian.

Let’s get started! Iniziamo!

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When do you use the passato remoto in Italian?

The passato remoto is mainly used in literature and history to talk about events that happened a long time ago. Its use in the spoken language is limited to the regional use of Italian in southern Italy. You will almost never hear it in movies and on the radio, for example, because it sounds kind of old-fashioned.

It’s usually the same as the English past simple tense, since we’re talking about events that began and ended in the past.

If it’s so rare, why do you need to learn how to conjugate verbs in this tense or at least how to recognize and understand them?

You see, almost all novels published in Italian, whether translated from other languages or written in this language, use a combination of the passato remoto and imperfetto tenses.

If you don’t learn at least the most common conjugations of the passato remoto in Italian, you won’t be able to read books in Italian. You need at least a passive knowledge of this tense to get by.

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Uses of the passato remoto in Italian

The passato remoto in Italian is used…

In all published books and novels told in the past tense (the vast majority).

In southern Italy, it usually replaces the passato prossimo tense.

When people recall very old events that they witnessed in the first person, they don’t use the passato remoto, but the trapassato prossimo tense (past perfect in English).

The passato remoto in Italian is reserved for very distant events that we are not emotionally involved with. For example, a history teacher might use this tense to talk about ancient Rome.

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How do you form the passato remoto in Italian?

The passato remoto in Italian is very easy to conjugate because it’s not a compound tense. On the other hand, however, it features many irregular verbs, so you will have to do a lot of memorizing.

Conjugating regular verbs in the passato remoto

For regular verbs, just take the stem of the verb you want to conjugate and add these endings:

• -ai/-etti/-ii
• -asti/-esti/-isti
• -ò/-ette/-ì
• -ammo/-emmo/-immo
• -aste/-este/-iste
• -arono/-ettero/-irono

What’s the stem of a verb?
Italian infinitive verbs end in -ARE, -ERE and -IRE.
Cut off this part and you are left with the root verb.
Examples:
tremare ➡️ trem-
piovere ➡️ piov-
cucire ➡️ cuc-
Verb endings for passato remoto in Italian are added to these root forms of the verb for each person.

pronoun	trovARE	dovERE	capIRE
io	trovai	dovetti / dovei	capii
tu	trovasti	dovesti	capisti
lui/lei	trovò	dovette / dové	capì
noi	trovammo	dovemmo	capimmo
voi	trovaste	doveste	capiste
loro	trovarono	dovettero / doverono	capirono

For example, you could say…

You will notice that for the -ERE verb class there are two possible conjugations for some persons. You can choose either one, but the ones ending in -etti/ette/ettero are much more common.

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Irregular verbs in the passato remoto

I told you that there are many exceptions to the conjugations of the passato remoto in Italian. There are many irregular verbs that have an irregular stem only in some persons, while other verbs are completely irregular like essere, to be.

First, let’s see the conjugations for essere and avere.

	essere	avere
io	fui	ebbi
tu	fosti	avesti
lui/lei	fu	ebbe
noi	fummo	avemmo
voi	foste	aveste
loro	furono	ebbero

You will notice that the verb avere is regular for some subjects and irregular for others. Many other verbs share this behavior!

Here are the passato remoto conjugations for some of the irregular verbs you will find in books.

fare	to do, make	feci, facesti, fece, facemmo, faceste, fecero
stare	to stay	stetti, stesti, stette, stemmo, steste, stettero
dire	to say, tell	dissi, dicesti, disse, dicemmo, diceste, dissero
volere	to want	volli, volesti, volle, volemmo, voleste, vollero
chiedere	to ask	chiesi, chiedesti, chiese, chiedemmo, chiedeste, chiesero
rispondere	to reply	risposi, rispondesti, rispose, rispondemmo, rispondeste, risposero
andare	to go	andai, andasti, andò, andammo, andaste, andarono
venire	to come	venni, venisti, venne, venimmo, veniste, vennero
chiudere	to close	chiusi, chiudesti, chiuse, chiudemmo, chiudeste, chiusero
vedere	to see	vidi, vedesti, vide, vedemmo, vedeste, videro
guardare	to look at	guardai, guardasti, guardò, guardammo, guardaste, guardarono
rimanere	to remain	rimasi, rimanesti, rimase, rimanemmo, rimaneste, rimasero
prendere	to take	presi, prendesti, prese, prendemmo, prendeste, presero
dare	to give	diedi, desti, diede, demmo, deste, diedero
togliere	to take away	tolsi, togliesti, tolse, togliemmo, toglieste, tolsero
muovere	to move	mossi, muovesti, mosse, muovemmo, muoveste, mossero
leggere	to read	lessi, leggesti, lesse, leggemmo, leggeste, lessero
scrivere	to write	scrissi, scrivesti, scrisse, scrivemmo, scriveste, scrissero
rompere	to break	ruppi, rompesti, ruppe, rompemmo, rompeste, rompemmo
conoscere	to know	conobbi, conoscesti, conobbe, conoscemmo, conosceste, conobbero
sapere	to know	seppi, sapesti, seppe, sapemmo, sapeste, seppero
ridere	to laugh	risi, ridesti, rise, ridemmo, rideste, risero
piangere	to cry	piansi, piangesti, pianse, piangemmo, piangeste, piansero
nascere	to be born	nacqui, nascesti, nacque, nascemmo, nasceste, nacquero
crescere	to grow up	crebbi, crescesti, crebbe, crescemmo, cresceste, crebbero
morire	to die	morii, moristi, morì, morimmo, moriste, morirono
uccidere	to kill	uccisi, uccidesti, uccise, uccidemmo, uccideste, uccisero
cadere	to fall	caddi, cadesti, cadde, cademmo, cadeste, caddero
correre	to run	corsi, corresti, corse, corremmo, correste, corsero
decidere	to decide	decisi, decidesti, decise, decidemmo, decideste, decisero
vincere	to win	vinsi, vincesti, vinse, vincemmo, vinceste, vinsero
difendere	to defend	difesi, difendesti, difese, difendemmo, difendeste, difesero
perdere	to lose	persi, perdesti, perse, perdemmo, perdeste, persero
spendere	to spend	spesi, spendesti, spese, spendemmo, spendeste, spesero

Examples using the passato remoto in Italian…

And that’s the end of our lesson on the passato remoto in Italian! If you still have any doubts about this tense, feel free to leave a comment.

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