Past Absolute Tense in Italian: Passato Remoto

We already know how to use a few different past tenses, but there is another one called passato remoto, and although most Italians don't use it in speaking, it is still relatively common in the written language, so it's worth going over, even though it's a total pain. If you're feeling brave, take a look!
Script by Patrizia Farina, Professor of Italian at Western Connecticut State University and Purchase College.
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[@gemmahull4007]

Just when I thought Italian grammar wasn't as bad as I feared! Holy cow this is a lot of remembering. Clear descriptive and helpful images. Great vid.

[@andrewwilliams9580]

I agree that's a lot to take in. I'm lucky I've got the Spanish equivalents of all those verb conjugations in my head. They're so similar. If I didn't have that, it'd take a lot longer. I remember learning verbs for the first time ever in French. Do it once and it becomes way easier in other languages from the same family.

[@Taliannu_i_stiddi_arrassu]

In southern Italy we use the same tenses of northern Italy. We use the simple past just when we switch language system. If we speak Italian we always use the passato prossimo. When we speak Sicilian we must use the simple past, because in Sicilian, in this case, is like in English. In Sicilian we say "antura mi CARÌU a pinna" (a while ago I dropped my pen). However we can't say "carìu" if we speak italian. In italian the cognate of "carìu" is "cadde", but nobody in Sicily would say "poco fa la mia penna cadde". All Sicilians say "poco fa la mia penna è caduta". I wouldn't want stranger people believe that in southern Italy they should be bothering about the "strange italian language" of Sicilians. "Dialectically" should be interpreted as "another language, not in italian".

[@petermercadante630]

But doesn't the point about Southern Italians using the passato remoto in speech hold good? From what you are saying Sicily may be the exception to that when Italian is spoken. Of course I appreciate that Sicilian itself is a different matter.

[@deefed7973]

I am just learning Italian. My Nonna is Sicilian, everything I learn in Italian, she corrects in Sicilian haha. There is a pause as she translates before she says, "very good". I think to her Italian is just as different as Spanish.

[@lexmole]

Well, I'd say (we) Sicilians follow the strict grammatical rules in that case - and we still use the beautiful old subject pronouns (ello, elli, etc., as "iddu", "iddi") that have been replaced by lui/loro in standard Italian recently. Well, Sicilian being an own language, but it still derives from the same language family as Standard Italian (Italo-Dalmatian) - while Northern Italian languages are from a different language family (Gallo-Romance ). That is to say, Sicilian follows in many of the old Italian language rules grammar-wise, even if the words and pronunciation are *totally* different. The common usage of Italian language is highly influenced by Northern Italy; Of course: it's the economic most powerful area, has a higher population and a high number of international contacts (business, and tourism) - and therefore it became heavily influenced by the French usage of the pasts. That's why the passato remoto (= passé simple in FR) has been replaced by the passato prossimo (= passé composé). And, to be fair, it's understandable: The tense is hard to use and full of irregularities. Same is happening with the congiuntivo (= subjunctif).

[@lexmole]

​@@deefed7973 Fun fact, when Italy has been united in 1861, only 2 % of its population was able to speak Italian! Until then, Italian had been a literature-only language since the times of Dante (this year 700th anniversary of his masterwork, btw). It became standardised pronounce-wise with instruction (schools) and *most of all* with the success of radio and (later) television. Therefore, many elder people have difficulties speaking standard Italian. The language is nowadays in a high-speed development of modernisation, since it had not experienced (almost) any kind of development for 550 years. Let's see what Italian will be in future!

[@Taliannu_i_stiddi_arrassu]

@@lexmole Perché contrapponi il siciliano all'italiano mettendo davanti all'italismo l'aggertivo "standard"? Se dici solo "italiano" vs "siciliano" si capisce lo stesso. Se usi l'aggettivo "standard" stai implicitamente affermando che il siciliano è una forma di italiano non-standard. Il che sarebbe un'informazione errata.

[@andrewwilliams9580]

This could be easier than I thought. The conjunction is so similar to the Spanish equivalent. Both tenses are used in English without even thinking about it. I use the both in Spanish without thinking about it too.

[@shreyarai2361]

Please keep uploading much of these good contents. They're very helpful

[@seagreenman1]

Really clear and helpful as all these Italian lessons are. Thank you! This is, as you say, the hardest tense of all. Reminds me of learning Latin at school!

[@modernopoletto2266]

Questo è molte utile e parli lentamente, che è fantastico. Grazie

[@heywardderrick9145]

Grazie professore Dave!

[@drewbennett9520]

Sempre lottai col passato remoto... difatti mi trovò difficilissima... ma adesso no! haha, grande professore Dave!, che canale meraviglioso saluti da Inghilterra :)

[@janetcc60]

Grazie mille

[@schifoso]

Brutal. Almost as hard as French.

[@andrewwilliams9580]

For the "I" form of these verbs, I'll start asking myself "how would I conjugate this in French?". Once I have the word, I'll change it to look Italian. I found the regular verbs in this tense follow a pattern more close to Spanish. In that case, I ask myself how I'd conjugate it in Spanish.

[@dean6412]

How is French harder?

[@juanguentenguea.gonzalez737]

Yep both French and Italian needed past participles than the past tense for an example I have been good

[@derekca]

Hi, please elaborate on what the I, III, III pattern means. This is the first time for me with this tense. Also, when you show "accogliere" why do you show just "accolsi" and "accogliesti", yet in the example you show "they" with "accolsero". I'm a little confused. Grazie

[@luciomaggioli8638]

I, II and III are the three main verb conjugations. Type I is for verbs that end in -are in the infinitive (ex. amare), type I is for verbs ending in -ere in the infinitive (ex. temere), type III is for verbs ending in -ire (ex. finire). "Accolsi" and "accogliesti" are first and second person singular, "accolsero" is third person plural.

[@louiscore3814]

I don’t want to nitpick…but Julius Caesar defeated Pompey, not Octavian 😮

[@theophonchana5025]

#irregular_verb #irregular_preterite #irregular_past_historic #irregular_past_historic_indicative #irregular_preterite_indicative #irregular_simple_past_indicative #irregular_passato_remoto #passato_remoto #past_historic

[@mysteriouspari3001]

Hello please tell me how to change past tense in present and future .....my son in class 2 he can,t understand this.... please tell some simple hint to convert tenses in italian

[@theophonchana5025]

‐ai preterite indicative suffix ‐ei preterite indicative suffix ‐etti preterite indicative suffix ‐ii preterite indicative suffix

[@misbahzar7044]

new subscriber from Pakistan

[@anthonynoody8757]

The exercise at the end is a bit much - I think switching from passato remoto to passato prossimo would have been more realistic. That or an exercise where you just read and translate to English.

[@petermercadante630]

I'm not sure that it makes any difference. You are simply changing one tense to another. As it's most likely that you will come across the passato remoto in written Italian you would just need to undertand it, not need to switch tenses.

[@JV-km9xk]

@@petermercadante630 The last exercise was way to hard to be taken directly after the lesson. In the long run, yeah its good but for the time being, it was more suited for those who studied well.

[@petermercadante630]

@@JV-km9xk I think that you are right. To be honest I cannot now remember the point I was trying to make. Anthony Noody was correct in saying that switching from the passato remoto to the passato prossimo would have been more realistic and you are correct in saying that it was too hard directly after the lesson. Prof Dave does refer to checking "comprehension" but the test is actually presented in the form of testing the ability to switch tenses.

[@JV-km9xk]

@@petermercadante630 Yeah. The first time I watched this, I pretty much didn't understand the I III III advice he gave and failed the comprehension quiz. Now, after studying again and looking closely, the I III III now makes sense to me and the last exercise can be done perfectly if you memorize the tenses.

[@theophonchana5025]

avere + ‐ei preterite indicative suffix avei ebbei (stem change: av‐ → ebb‐) ebbi (e‐loss, ‐ei → ‐i)

[@AbidHussain-fu1nr]

Important

[@dean6412]

What does he mean by a 1-3-3 pattern? I don't understand

[@ElisabettaMaccani]

133 means this: 1º person singular, 3º person singular and 3º person plural. There are usually irregular forms. I hope this helps!

[@janeyre82]

When a verb is irregular in the passato remoto, the irregual voices will be the 1st-person singular, the 3rd-person singular and the 3rd-person plural, while the three voices left are generally regular. The only exceptions are the verbs "essere", "dare" and "stare": these ones have a totally irregular passato remoto.

[@lexmole]

My advice: if ye learn a verb, learn the first person singular of the passato remoto as well (I/io) ... This is most important for the 2nd and 3rd conjugation (-ere/-ire), because in the *entire* first conjugation class (-are) there are *only 4* (andare, dare, fare, stare) irregular verbs, and one of these (andare) is *regular* in the passato remoto. So, what do ye do then? In the passato remoto, almost all irregular verbs use *different stems* for the first person singular (io) and the third person singular (egli/ella/esso/essa, nowadays lui/lei) and plural (essi/esse, nowadays loro). In addition, first person singular gets -i, third person singular -e, and third person plural -ero as ending. *No matter if the conjugation is -ere or -ire* ... For the other persons ye use the *regular* stem (word minus ending -ere/-ire) and the *regular* endings. *Example* - apparire, io apparvi (PR). → stem I: appar- • stem II: apparv- Note: Since irregular verbs that follow this rule (in fact, almost every irregular verb does), they have the ending -i on io, ye just have to remove that -i to get stem II. Now ye are able to conjugate: io: stem II (appar-) + irregular ending (-i) → apparvi tu: stem I (apparv-) + regular ending (-isti) → apparvisti egli: stem II (apparv-) + irregular ending (-e) → apparve noi: stem I (appar-) + regular ending (-immo) → apparimmo voi: stem I (appar-) + regular ending (-iste) → appariste essi: stem II (apparv-) + irregular ending (-ero) → apparvero In fact, this verb can even be conjugated completely regular, or even with another irregular stem: io apparso (PR). Hope that was helpful!

[@lulu-fl3ok]

👌👌👌👌

[@BooyahL]

Ottima pronuncia 😉 hai vissuto in Italia/hai parenti italiani?

[@ProfessorDaveExplains]

Si i miei genitori sono di Pisa!

[@BooyahL]

@@ProfessorDaveExplains wow io studio fisica lì! Infatti ho conosciuto il tuo canale attraverso i video di fisica moderna. Ottimi contenuti, continua così 😁

[@xXPurpleLoliTranceXx]

Possato Prossimo- more recently a complete action Possato Remote- Basically if you're referencing something that happened in the 1900s or further back but it's complete 😂 (I'm ofc exaggerating but it's one way to remember this) Possato Prossimo- Ho avuto una figlia l'anno scorso e ero felice! Versus Possato Remoto- Mia madre è nacque matà degli anni sessanta e fu una bambina carina Nvm idfk 😂 is it right?

[@lexmole]

No, I'm afraid, that's not correct (and it should be just nacque, not è nacque). An appropriate usage of passato prossimo would be: "L'anno scorso è nata mia figlia e sono felice!" → the birth took action at a certain point of the past, and it effects still, since ye point out, that ye are happy about it. If ye just want to say, that your daughter was born last year, ye need to use the passato remoto: "L'anno scorso nacque mia figlia!" → Ye just give an information to her birth; ye don't add anything about the present. Therefore, the passato remoto is used, as he correctly said, when the event has no *direct* relation to what the person is expressing or affecting at the moment of speech. His example with the poem was *very* good. I give you another easy example: Ho mangiato la pasta per pranzo. → I ate pasta for lunch (therefore I'm not hungry). Mangai la pasta per pranzo. → I ate pasta for lunch (I might be hungry again). Note that people in Southern Italian regions use the passato remoto *A LOT* ... They use it for literally almost *every single action* that is complete, as long as it isn't done like 10 minutes ago. In Northern Italy ye probably won't hear the passato remoto in daily speech at all - but *definitely* in written language. They tend to substitute it with the passato prossimo (like French people substitute their complicated passé simple with the easy passé composé). So, of course, in every-day speech ye are totally allowed to use the passato prossimo instead of the passato remoto, and would be understood if ye say: "L'anno scorso è nata mia figlia". Tanti saluti!

[@xXPurpleLoliTranceXx]

@@lexmole Thank you!

[@ogeidnomar4601]

Challenge accepted...

[@eddykbhih217]

Please... discuss about ohms law , derivatives of ohms law, limitations,etc

[@theophonchana5025]

stare + ‐ai preterite indicative suffix stai stetti (‐ai → ‐etti)

[@bornlast6592]

Prof tu sapevi che questo passato remoto è molto difficile da imparare. alla fine non hai dato l'esempio

[@mariad2372]

I agree it is difficult and I dont understand why past perfect and imperfetto aren't enough to suffice! And then the irregulars ... Oy vey. My dad is Sicilian and its true, they speak in this tense in "the present" its crazy lol. È difficile ma Buona fortuna a noi!

[@lubanababbu8725]

Ciao maria

[@JV-km9xk]

@@lubanababbu8725 Ciao Lubana

[@gennarolongo5086]

Alalalalala

[@DaWrestla]

Stemmo not fummo

[@DaWrestla]

My bad - fummo is correct!