The trapassato prossimo is the Italian equivalent of the English past perfect tense. Much like in English, the Italian past perfect is used to express an action that had been completed before a second action was also completed. The trapassato prossimo is a compound tense made by combining the imperfetto (imperfect) of either avere (to have) or essere (to be) with the past participle of the main verb. This is similar to the construction of the past perfect in English, which takes the form of “had + past participle.”

Conjugating Trapassato Prossimo

Trapassato prossimo is a compound tense constructed of “imperfect of avere/ essere + past participle.” As with other compound tenses, the auxiliary that the main verb takes in trapassato prossimo is determined by the type of verb being used. Transitive verbs take avere, and intransitive verbs take essere. Below is the trapassato prossimo of three transitive and three intransitive verbs, one –are, -ere, and –ere example for each category.

Transitive (“avere”) Verb Examples

Intransitive (“essere”) Verb Examples