Trapassato remoto: the Italian past anterior (ebbe fatto)

The trapassato remoto, usually called the past anterior in English grammars, is a compound tense: the passato remoto of avere or essere plus a past participle, as in «ebbe finito» or «fu partito». It marks an action completed immediately before another past action told in the passato remoto: «Appena ebbe firmato il trattato, il re lasciò la città» “As soon as he had signed the treaty, the king left the city.”

It is the rarest tense in Italian. It belongs to written, literary and historical narration, almost always inside a time clause, and it never occurs in ordinary conversation. For most learners it is a tense to recognise when reading novels and history books rather than one to produce: the trapassato prossimo («aveva finito») and implicit clauses («dopo aver finito») cover the same ground in modern usage. Knowing how it works, though, lets you read classic prose with confidence and use it deliberately in a formal narrative.

The pairing: a time clause and a passato remoto

Three conditions normally hold together. The trapassato remoto stands in a subordinate time clause introduced by «dopo che», «appena», «non appena» or «quando», and in literary prose also «come» in the sense of “as soon as”. The main clause is in the passato remoto. And the action in the time clause is completed just before the main one: «Dopo che ebbe letto la lettera, la strappò», «Non appena furono usciti, la porta si chiuse alle loro spalle», «Quando ebbe finito di parlare, nessuno applaudì».

The emphasis is on completion and immediate succession: first one action is over, then the next begins. That is why «appena» and «non appena» are its most typical companions. The two clauses can have the same subject or different ones: «Appena il medico fu uscito, la madre scoppiò a piangere».

The auxiliary follows the usual rules, with essere for verbs of motion and change of state and for reflexive and pronominal verbs, and with essere the participle agrees with the subject: «appena si furono seduti», «quando fu arrivata», «dopo che se ne fu andato». Outside time clauses, older literary prose occasionally uses the tense in a main clause to stress how quickly something was completed: «In pochi minuti ebbe sistemato ogni cosa» “In a few minutes he had put everything in order.” Recognise this use, but do not imitate it.

• Dopo che ebbe consegnato il manoscritto, l’autore partì per Parigi. · Once he had delivered the manuscript, the author left for Paris.
• Non appena il governo fu caduto, il re convocò i capi dei partiti. · As soon as the government had fallen, the king summoned the party leaders.
• Quando ebbero finito di cenare, uscirono in giardino. · When they had finished dinner, they went out into the garden.

Trapassato remoto or trapassato prossimo?

Both tenses place an event before another past event, but their range is very different. The trapassato prossimo («aveva finito») works in any past context, in any kind of clause, in speech and in writing: «Quando arrivai, il treno era già partito», «Mi disse che aveva perso le chiavi». The trapassato remoto is limited to the pairing described above, and adds the nuance of immediate succession.

Compare «Quando ebbe finito, uscì», a single sequence of events (once he had finished, he left), with «Quando aveva finito, usciva», a habit (whenever he had finished, he would go out), where the main clause is in the imperfetto. With an imperfetto in the main clause, the trapassato remoto is not possible.

Even with a passato remoto in the main clause, many modern writers use the trapassato prossimo instead («Dopo che aveva firmato, partì») or, more often, an implicit construction, which reads more lightly: «Dopo aver firmato, partì», «Firmato il contratto, partì». In your own writing these alternatives are always available; the trapassato remoto is a stylistic choice that marks a text as literary or historical.

• Quando arrivammo, lo spettacolo era già cominciato. · When we arrived, the show had already started.
• Finita la guerra, tornò al suo paese e riaprì la bottega. · When the war was over, he went back to his village and reopened the shop.

Reading it: forms that look alike

To recognise the tense, look for a passato remoto of avere or essere («ebbi», «ebbe», «ebbero»; «fui», «fu», «furono») followed by a past participle, inside a clause with «appena», «dopo che» or «quando». One lookalike can mislead you: fu + participle is very often a passive in the passato remoto, not a trapassato remoto. «Il trattato fu firmato a Parigi» means “the treaty was signed in Paris”.

The verb tells you which is which. With an intransitive verb that takes essere, such as «partire», «arrivare» or «uscire», fu + participle is a trapassato remoto: «appena fu arrivato» “as soon as he had arrived”. With a transitive verb such as «firmare» or «costruire», it is a passive: «appena fu firmato l’accordo» “as soon as the agreement was signed”.

English usually translates the tense with a past perfect or a simple past: «Appena ebbe chiuso la porta, si mise a piangere» “As soon as she had closed (or closed) the door, she began to cry.” What matters is the order of events. When you retell such a passage in conversation, switch to spoken tenses: «Appena ha chiuso la porta, si è messa a piangere».

• Appena fu uscita dall’ufficio, accese il telefono. · As soon as she had left the office, she switched on her phone.
• Il ponte fu inaugurato nel 1932. · The bridge was opened in 1932. (a passive, not a trapassato remoto)
• Dopo che l’ospite se ne fu andato, la casa tornò silenziosa. · After the guest had gone, the house fell silent again.