Learn how to form and use the trapassato remoto ("preterit perfect") tense
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Consuelo: Ciao a tutti, benvenuti. |
| Marco: Marco here. Upper intermediate season 1, Lesson 10. I Needed More Time to Tidy Up My Italian Apartment Before You Arrived. |
| Consuelo: Hi, my name is Consuelo and I am joined here by Marco. |
| Marco: Hello everyone and welcome back to italianpod101.com |
| Consuelo: What are we learning today? |
| Marco: In today’s class, we will focus on the trapassato remoto tense. |
| Consuelo: This conversation takes place at home. |
| Marco: And it’s between Davide and Irene. |
| Consuelo: They will be speaking informal Italian. |
| Marco: Let’s hear the conversation now. |
| DIALOGUE |
| (Irene entra a casa dei suoi genitori.) |
| Irene: Ciao babbo che leggi? Sembri perplesso... |
| Davide: Senti qua! "Negli USA è stato messo all'asta il taxi con il quale scappò l'assassino di Kennedy nel '63. Salì sul taxi dopo che ebbe sparato al Presidente degli Stati Uniti e lasciò pure cinque centesimi di mancia. Il taxi è stato venduto ad un museo per 35.700 dollari." Il taxi che ha portato un criminale finisce in un museo, incredibile, no? |
| Irene: In effetti sì... |
| Davide: Che ci fai qui tesoro? |
| Irene: Settimana scorsa ho lasciato qui i miei appunti. |
| Davide: Hai esami adesso? |
| Irene: No grazie al cielo! Adesso vado babbo, domani torna Claudia e la casa è sottosopra, devo rimettere un po’ a posto. |
| Davide: Ah ah, brava! Ciao tesoro! |
| Marco: Let’s here it slowly now. |
| (Irene entra a casa dei suoi genitori.) |
| Irene: Ciao babbo che leggi? Sembri perplesso... |
| Davide: Senti qua! "Negli USA è stato messo all'asta il taxi con il quale scappò l'assassino di Kennedy nel '63. Salì sul taxi dopo che ebbe sparato al Presidente degli Stati Uniti e lasciò pure cinque centesimi di mancia. Il taxi è stato venduto ad un museo per 35.700 dollari." Il taxi che ha portato un criminale finisce in un museo, incredibile, no? |
| Irene: In effetti sì... |
| Davide: Che ci fai qui tesoro? |
| Irene: Settimana scorsa ho lasciato qui i miei appunti. |
| Davide: Hai esami adesso? |
| Irene: No grazie al cielo! Adesso vado babbo, domani torna Claudia e la casa è sottosopra, devo rimettere un po’ a posto. |
| Davide: Ah ah, brava! Ciao tesoro! |
| Marco: And now, with the translation. |
| (Irene entra a casa dei suoi genitori.) |
| (Irene enters her parents' house) |
| Irene: Ciao babbo che leggi? Sembri perplesso... |
| Irene: Hi, Dad, what are you reading? You look perplexed... |
| Davide: Senti qua! "Negli USA è stato messo all'asta il taxi con il quale scappò l'assassino di Kennedy nel '63. Salì sul taxi dopo che ebbe sparato al Presidente degli Stati Uniti e lasciò pure cinque centesimi di mancia. Il taxi è stato venduto ad un museo per 35.700 dollari." Il taxi che ha portato un criminale finisce in un museo, incredibile, no? |
| Davide: Listen! "The taxi in which Kennedy's murderer escaped in 1963 has been auctioned in the United States. He got in the taxi right after he had shot the President of the United States, and he also left a five cent tip. The taxi has been sold to a museum for 35,700 dollars." The taxi that drove a criminal ends up in a museum; incredible, isn't it? |
| Irene: In effetti sì... |
| Irene: Actually, yes... |
| Davide: Che ci fai qui tesoro? |
| Davide: What are you doing here, sweetie? |
| Irene: Settimana scorsa ho lasciato qui i miei appunti. |
| Irene: Last week, I left my notes here. |
| Davide: Hai esami adesso? |
| Davide: Do you have tests now? |
| Irene: No grazie al cielo! Adesso vado babbo, domani torna Claudia e la casa è sottosopra, devo rimettere un po’ a posto. |
| Irene: No, thank goodness! I'm leaving now, Dad. Tomorrow Claudia is coming back and the house is upside down; I have to tidy up a bit. |
| Davide: Ah ah, brava! Ciao tesoro! |
| Davide: Ah ah, good! Bye, sweetie! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Marco: Hey Consuelo, do you say Usa in Italian? |
| Consuelo: Yes we don’t say U-S-A. Also the United States are gli Stati Uniti. |
| Marco: Oh interesting! |
| Consuelo: Did you notice, Claudia and Irene don’t live with their parents. |
| Marco: Yes. At what age do you usually leave home in Italy? |
| Consuelo: Definitely very late. |
| Marco: I see. |
| Consuelo: Because houses are really expensive in Italy and recently the period of engagement became longer. As a result, it’s very common that even people in the 30s still live with their parents. |
| Marco: Wow! I know that in Italy people date a lot before living with the partner or getting married. Is that true? |
| Consuelo: Right. Anyway, if you can share an apartment with brothers, friends or colleagues, it is easier. |
| Marco: Sure. We can share the rent and the bills. |
| Consuelo: A situation like this is affordable for young people. |
| Marco: Grazie. That’s good to know. |
| Consuelo: Si, buono a sapersi. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is |
| Consuelo: Perplesso. |
| Marco: Perplexed, puzzled. |
| Consuelo: Perplesso. Perplesso |
| Marco: Next we have |
| Consuelo: Asta. |
| Marco: Auction. |
| Consuelo: Asta. Asta. |
| Marco: And the next word is |
| Consuelo: Sparare. |
| Marco: To shoot. |
| Consuelo: Sparare. Sparare |
| Marco: Next we have |
| Consuelo: Mancia. |
| Marco: Tip. |
| Consuelo: Mancia. Mancia |
| Marco: And the next word is |
| Consuelo: Criminale. |
| Marco: Criminal. |
| Consuelo: Criminale. Criminale |
| Marco: And the next word is |
| Consuelo: Incredibile. |
| Marco: Incredible, unbelievable. |
| Consuelo: Incredibile. Incredibile |
| Marco: Next we have |
| Consuelo: Appunti. |
| Marco: Notes. |
| Consuelo: Appunti. Appunti |
| Marco: And today’s last word is |
| Consuelo: Sottosopra. |
| Marco: Upside down. |
| Consuelo: Sottosopra. Sottosopra. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Marco: So Consuelo, what expression are we studying today? |
| Consuelo: The Italian expression “rimettere a posto”. |
| Marco: To tidy up. |
| Consuelo: Rimettere a posto is used when you put things back in their place making it clean. |
| Marco: In this case, Irene says, the house is upside down. |
| Consuelo: La casa è sottosopra. So she has to tidy up before her sister comes back from work. |
| Marco: Hold on a second. So, rimettere a posto doesn’t have the same meaning as pulire. |
| Consuelo: No Marco. Pulire means to clean but when talking about a room or a house in general, it is preferred to use rimettere a posto instead of pulire. |
| Marco: I see. Can you give us an example with this expression? |
| Consuelo: Sure. Ieri ho rimesso a posto tutto il giorno. |
| Marco: Yesterday I tidied up all day. I think that’s a lie. |
| Consuelo: No that’s not a lie. I like keeping tidy. |
| Marco: How do you say to keep tidy in Italian? |
| Consuelo: We say tenere in ordine. |
| Marco: Oh you don’t use A posto in this case? |
| Consuelo: Exactly. We use ordine, meaning the order. Let me tell you some other expressions with the same meaning as rimettere a posto. |
| Marco: Okay go ahead. |
| Consuelo: You can also say: mettere in ordine or ordinare. |
| Marco: By the way rimettere a posto sounds more natural to me. |
| Consuelo: Oh you are right Marco. Mettere in ordine and ordinare are a bit formal though. Let’s take a look at today’s grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Marco: In today’s lesson, we focus on the trapassato remoto tense. |
| Consuelo: Don’t be scared by the words trapassato remoto. It is the preterit perfect and is very easy to form. |
| Marco: That’s true. We already studied the passato remoto of essere and avere in previous lessons. |
| Consuelo: That’s useful right now because trapassato remoto is formed by the passato remoto of the auxiliary verb essere or avere plus the past participle of the main verb. |
| Marco: The preterit perfect is used to refer to events and facts that were already completed before a point of reference in the past. |
| Consuelo: You can find verbs conjugated at trapassato remoto mainly in written Italian. |
| Marco: Yep. It’s very rare to hear it in normal conversation. |
| Consuelo: By the way, the trapassato remoto is used after temporal expressions related to the main clause. These are: dopo che |
| Marco: Right after. |
| Consuelo: Appena |
| Marco: Just. |
| Consuelo: Quando |
| Marco: When. |
| Consuelo: Finchè non |
| Marco: Up until. Now let’s listen to one example. |
| Consuelo: La festa cominciò dopo che tutti gli invitati furono arrivati. |
| Marco: The party began right after all the guests had arrived. |
| Consuelo: So the guests arrived before the party was started. That’s why we conjugate the verb arrivare, meaning to arrive, at trapassato remoto. |
| Marco: This tense is also used to report facts that happen before the main clause but in a very specific span of time. |
| Consuelo: Right in a specific period. |
| Marco: For example: |
| Consuelo: Dopo che ebbi lavorato a Milano dal 1960 al 1968, mi trasferii a Roma. |
| Marco: After I had worked in Milan from 1960 to 1968, I moved to Rome. |
| Consuelo: In the dialogue, we have David reading an article from a newspaper. Did you hear the verb at trapassato remoto Marco? |
| Marco: Sure in the sentence: salì sul taxi dopo che ebbe sparato al Presidente degli Stati Uniti. |
| Consuelo: Exactly. He got on the taxi right after he had shot the president of the United States. |
| Marco: That makes sense. The man first shot the president and only then did he get in the taxi. |
| Consuelo: That’s why the verb sparare, meaning to shoot, is conjugated at trapassato remoto. |
| Marco: Please listen to the conjugation at trapassato remoto for this verb. |
| Consuelo: Io ebbi sparato. |
| Marco: I had shot. |
| Consuelo: Tu avesti sparato. |
| Marco: You had shot. |
| Consuelo: Lui/lei ebbe sparato. |
| Marco: He/she/it had shot. |
| Consuelo: Noi avemmo sparato. |
| Marco: We had shot. |
| Consuelo: Voi aveste sparato. |
| Marco: You had shot. |
| Consuelo: Loro ebbero sparato. |
| Marco: They had shot. |
Outro |
| Marco: That just about does it for today. Listeners, do you know the reason flashcards are so popular? |
| Consuelo: It’s because they work. |
| Marco: We’ve taken this time tested studying tool and modernized with My Word Bank flashcards. |
| Consuelo: Learn vocabulary using your eyes and ears. |
| Marco: It’s simple and powerful. Save difficult and interesting words to your personal vocabulary list called My Word Bank. |
| Consuelo: Master words in your My Word Bank by practicing with flashcards. |
| Marco: Words in My Word Bank come with audio. So you learn proper pronunciation. |
| Consuelo: While you learn to recognize words by sight. |
| Marco: Go to italianpod101.com and try My Word Bank and flashcards today. |
| Consuelo: Arrivederci. |
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