Il trapassato prossimo: avevo già mangiato
Il trapassato prossimo: avevo già mangiato means “The past before the past — what had already happened”. Take the imperfetto of the auxiliary and add the past participle: avevo mangiato, ero andato. Formation: imperfetto di avere/essere + participio passato — ausiliare e accordo come al passato prossimo
The past before the past — what had already happened
B1Formation
imperfetto di avere/essere + participio passato — ausiliare e accordo come al passato prossimo
Explanation
Take the imperfetto of the auxiliary and add the past participle: avevo mangiato, ero andato. The choice of auxiliary and the agreement rules are exactly those of the passato prossimo, so if you can say sono andata you can say ero andata. Use it whenever you need to place one past event before another: quando sono arrivato, il film era già cominciato. It is very common after quando, dopo che, perché and in reported speech: mi ha detto che aveva perso il treno. Italian uses this tense more consistently than English does — where English often makes do with a simple past, Italian marks the earlier event explicitly.
Examples
Note
This is the easiest compound tense to learn because it reuses everything you already know from the passato prossimo — only the auxiliary's tense changes.
FAQ
Il trapassato prossimo: avevo già mangiato — what does it mean and how is it used?
The past before the past — what had already happened. Take the imperfetto of the auxiliary and add the past participle: avevo mangiato, ero andato. The choice of auxiliary and the agreement rules are exactly those of the passato prossimo, so if you can say sono andata you can say ero andata. Use it whenever you need to place one past event before another: quando sono arrivato, il film era già cominciato. It is very common after quando, dopo che, perché and in reported speech: mi ha detto che aveva perso il treno. Italian uses this tense more consistently than English does — where English often makes do with a simple past, Italian marks the earlier event explicitly.
Il trapassato prossimo: avevo già mangiato — how do you form it?
imperfetto di avere/essere + participio passato — ausiliare e accordo come al passato prossimo
Il trapassato prossimo: avevo già mangiato — any usage notes?
This is the easiest compound tense to learn because it reuses everything you already know from the passato prossimo — only the auxiliary's tense changes.