What is the simple past tense in Italian?
The passato prossimo is one of several past tenses in Italian. It is the one you will use most. It is used to describe actions that were completed in the past, such as: I took the exam last Friday….
infinitive | past participle |
---|---|
finire | finito |
How do you use past tense in Italian?
This tense is used to describe an action that happened at a particular point in the past. In Italian this tense is formed by an auxiliary verb and a past participle of the main verb, while in English it is formed by one verb. Ho ricevuto la telefonata. I received a phone call.

What is the past perfect tense in Italian?
Trapassato Prossimo
The Italian Past Perfect Tense – called Trapassato Prossimo – is to be used to talk about events which are already over in the past. The action expressed by the Italian Past Perfect Tense happened before another event in the past.
What are the Italian tenses?
Understanding Italian verb tenses
- The present tense.
- The future tense.
- The imperfect tense.
- The perfect tense.
- The past historic.
- The imperative.
- The conditional.
- The subjunctive.
How many verb tenses are there in Italian?
21
But how many of them do you really need to know at first? The number of verb tenses in Italian can feel overwhelming. Italian has a total of 21, divided into two forms (compared to 12 tenses in English) and a total of seven moods, also split into two categories.

What are the tenses in Italian?
The Italian language has three tenses: present tense, past tense and future tense.
What are moods in Italian?
There are four finite moods (modi finiti) in Italian: the indicativo or indicative, used to express events in reality; the congiuntivo or subjunctive, used to express actions or feelings in the realm of dream, possibility, wish, conjecture, probability; the condizionale, which is used to express what would happen in a …