Parli Italiano?
Chapter 20: Passato Remoto
The remote past is the grammatical equivalent of the simple past in English (I ate; he went; they listened) and refers to the historical past and to events that happened in the distant past.
However, the passato remoto is not very commonly used and can only sometimes be heard in conversation in some places in Southern and Central Italy to refer to something that happened very recently. It is more generally replaced by the passato prossimo, which serves the same grammatical function.
Since the passato remoto is not very common, you are not required to know how to conjugate every verb (Italians have trouble conjugating this tense too). Nonetheless, you will need to recognize it when reading novels, short stories, and other historical or literary excerpts. Here are a few examples of how the remote past is used in Italian:
I Romani combatterono molte guerre. → The Romans fought many wars.
Dante Alighieri nacque nel 1265. → Dante Alighieri was born in 1265.
L’Italia diventò una repubblica nel 1946. → Italy became a republic in 1946.
Here are the conjugations for regular verbs in –are, –ere, -ire.
[table id=26 /]
Some common irregular verbs in the passato remoto are:
Avere: ebbi, avesti, ebbe, avemmo, aveste, ebbero
Chiedere: chiesi, chiedesti, chiese, chiedemmo, chiedeste, chiesero
Dare: detti (diedi), desti, dette (diede), demmo, deste, dettero (diedero)
Dire: dissi, dicesti, disse, dicemmo, diceste, dissero
Dovere: dovei (dovetti), dovesti, dové (dovette), dovemmo, doveste, doverono (dovettero)
Essere: fui, fosti, fu, fummo, foste, furono
Fare: feci, facesti, fece, facemmo, faceste, fecero
Mettere: misi, mettesti, mise, mettemmo, metteste, misero
Nascere: nacqui, nascesti, nacque, nascemmo, nasceste, nacquero
Prendere: presi, pendesti, prese, prendemmo, prendeste, presero
Scrivere: scrissi, scrivesti, scrisse, scrivemmo, scriveste, scrissero
Stare: stetti, stesti, stette, stemmo, steste, stettero
Vedere: vidi, vedesti, vide, vedemmo, vedeste, videro
Venire: venni, venisti, venne, venimmo, veniste, vennero
Vivere: vissi, vivesti, visse, vivemmo, viveste, vissero
Volere: volli, volesti, volle, volemmo, voleste, vollero