The remote past 

The remote past is the grammatical equivalent of the simple past in English (I went; he slept, we played…) and refers to the historical past and to events that happened in the distant past. However, one can hear the passato remoto in conversation in some places in Southern and Central Italy to refer to something that happened very recently, as a synonym of passato prossimo.

You won’t need to produce this new conjugation (Italians have trouble conjugating this tense too!), but you will need to recognize it when reading stories, fables, and other historical or literary excerpts.  Here are a few examples of how the remote past is used in Italian:

• I Romani costruirono molti acquedotti. – The Romans built many aqueducts.
• Machiavelli nacque nel 1469. – Machiavelli was born in 1469.
• L’Italia entrò in guerra nel 1940. – Italy entered the war in 1940.

• Some very common irregular verbs in the remote past:

Avere: ebbi, avesti, ebbe, avemmo, aveste, ebbero

Chiedere: chiesi, chiedesti, chiese, chiedemmo, chiedeste, chiesero

Dare: detti, desti, dette, demmo, deste, dettero

Dire: dissi, dicesti, disse, dicemmo, diceste, dissero

Essere: fui, fosti, fu, fummo, foste, furono

Fare: feci, facesti, fece, facemmo, faceste, fecero

Mettere: misi, mettesti, mise, mettemmo, metteste, misero

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

Volere: volli, volesti, volle, volemmo, voleste, vollero