Italian passato remoto: narrative past, and where it's still spoken
- Mood: Indicativo
- Level: B1
The passato remoto is the tense of novels, history books and fairy tales, and of ordinary conversation across much of southern Italy. You need it to read, and to understand roughly a third of the country. Its reputation for chaos comes down to one pattern that, once seen, explains almost all of it.
Passato remoto conjugation
Regular -ere verbs accept a second set of endings in three persons (credetti alongside credei). The tables show the more common -etti forms.
parlare
to talk, to speak · -are (first conjugation)
| io | parlai |
| tu | parlasti |
| lui/lei | parlò |
| noi | parlammo |
| voi | parlaste |
| loro | parlarono |
credere
to believe · -ere (second conjugation)
| io | credetti |
| tu | credesti |
| lui/lei | credette |
| noi | credemmo |
| voi | credeste |
| loro | credettero |
dormire
to sleep · -ire (third conjugation)
| io | dormii |
| tu | dormisti |
| lui/lei | dormì |
| noi | dormimmo |
| voi | dormiste |
| loro | dormirono |
finire
to finish · -ire (third conjugation) · -isc-
| io | finii |
| tu | finisti |
| lui/lei | finì |
| noi | finimmo |
| voi | finiste |
| loro | finirono |
When to use the passato remoto
-
Narrative and historical writing
Completed events with no bearing on the present, in novels, biographies and history.
Dante morì a Ravenna nel 1321.
Dante died in Ravenna in 1321. -
Storytelling
Fairy tales and anecdotes conventionally use it, regardless of region.
Un giorno arrivò uno straniero.
One day a stranger arrived. -
Everyday speech in the south
In Sicily, Calabria, Campania and Puglia the passato remoto does the work the passato prossimo does further north, including for things that happened this morning.
Ieri parlai con tua sorella.
Yesterday I spoke with your sister.
How the passato remoto is formed
-are verbs are fully regular: -ai, -asti, -ò, -ammo, -aste, -arono, as in parlai. -ire verbs are equally regular: -ii, -isti, -ì, -immo, -iste, -irono, as in dormii.
-ere verbs are where the reputation comes from. Very many of them are irregular in exactly three persons (io, lui/lei and loro) while tu, noi and voi stay regular. Grammarians call this the 1-3-3 pattern (first singular, third singular, third plural). Prendere gives presi, prendesti, prese, prendemmo, prendeste, presero: the irregular stem appears three times, the regular stem three times.
Once you know the io form of an irregular -ere verb, the other two irregular persons follow mechanically: drop the -i and add -e for lui/lei, add -ero for loro.
Regular -ere verbs accept two sets of endings in those same three persons: -ei / -é / -erono alongside -etti / -ette / -ettero. Both are standard. The -etti forms are more common in modern usage and are the ones shown in the tables here, so credere gives credetti, credette, credettero.
Irregular verbs in the passato remoto
Check the io form first. The rest of the irregularity follows from it.
essere
to be
| io | fui |
| tu | fosti |
| lui/lei | fu |
| noi | fummo |
| voi | foste |
| loro | furono |
avere
to have
| io | ebbi |
| tu | avesti |
| lui/lei | ebbe |
| noi | avemmo |
| voi | aveste |
| loro | ebbero |
fare
to do
| io | feci |
| tu | facesti |
| lui/lei | fece |
| noi | facemmo |
| voi | faceste |
| loro | fecero |
dire
to say, to tell
| io | dissi |
| tu | dicesti |
| lui/lei | disse |
| noi | dicemmo |
| voi | diceste |
| loro | dissero |
venire
to come
| io | venni |
| tu | venisti |
| lui/lei | venne |
| noi | venimmo |
| voi | veniste |
| loro | vennero |
prendere
to take, hold
| io | presi |
| tu | prendesti |
| lui/lei | prese |
| noi | prendemmo |
| voi | prendeste |
| loro | presero |
vedere
to see
| io | vidi |
| tu | vedesti |
| lui/lei | vide |
| noi | vedemmo |
| voi | vedeste |
| loro | videro |
stare
to stay, to be (feel)
| io | stetti |
| tu | stesti |
| lui/lei | stette |
| noi | stemmo |
| voi | steste |
| loro | stettero |
dare
to give
| io | diedi |
| tu | desti |
| lui/lei | diede |
| noi | demmo |
| voi | deste |
| loro | diedero |
Common mistakes
Don't mix it with the passato prossimo in the same narrative
Pick one past frame and stay in it. Switching mid-story reads as an error rather than a stylistic choice.
The stress moves
Parlarono is stressed on the second syllable (par-LA-rono), not on the ending. Getting this wrong is the clearest tell of a learner reading aloud.
It isn't dead
Textbooks written for northern Italian often call it literary. Tell that to Palermo.
Related tenses
Reading about a tense isn't the same as producing it
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