Here are the solutions to our quiz about the use of the Trapassato Prossimo and the Passato Prossimo as explained in our recent blogs Trapassato Prossimo e Passato Prossimo and e finì tutto a tarallucci e vino
I asked you to complete the following sentences using either the trapassato prossimo or the passato prossimo. Let’s find out how you got on!
1. Quella sera era andata a letto presto
2. Ieri sera sono andato/a (I went – andare) a letto presto
3. Non l’avevo sentito (I had heard – sentire) arrivare perché dormivo
4. Non l’ho sentito (I heard – sentire) arrivare perché dormivo
5. Avevamo deciso (We had decided – decidere) di partire presto
6. Abbiamo deciso (We decided – decidere) di partire presto
7. Si erano sposati (They had got married – sposarsi) molto giovani
8. Si sono sposati (They got married – sposarsi) molto giovani
9. Il giorno prima era/aveva piovuto (it had rained – piovere) tanto
10. Il giorno prima è/ha piovuto (it rained – piovere) tanto – N.B. with the verb piovere you can use either essere or avere
Sentences containing both the trapassato prossimo and the passato prossimo:
11. Quando siamo tornati (we got – tornare) a casa abbiamo scoperto (we discovered – scoprire) che il gatto aveva mangiato (had eaten – mangiare) la torta
12. La finestra era stata lasciata (had been left – lasciare) aperta facilitando l’ingresso ai ladri (sorry, this should have been in the previous section as it obviously doesn’t contain both past tenses)
13. Luisa mi ha detto (told – dire) che non era mai stata (had never been – essere) a Londra in vita sua
14. Era stata (It had been – essere) una giornata molto stancante perciò abbiamo preso (we took – prendere) il taxi per tornare a casa
15. Paolo mi ha detto (told – raccontare) che quando era bambino suo padre era emigrato (had emigrated – emigrare) in America con la famiglia
16. Ho saputo (I’ve found out – sapere) che la strada era già stata danneggiata (had already been damaged – danneggiare) dall’alluvione di due anni fa
17. La ditta aveva perso (had lost – perdere) troppi soldi e quindi è fallita (it failed – fallire). Alcuni impiegati ci avevano lavorato (had worked – lavorare) per più di vent’anni
18. Il gatto è tornato (came back – tornare) a casa affamato e dimagrito perché era rimasto (it had been left – rimanere) rinchiuso nel garage per tre giorni
19. I due ragazzi erano scomparsi (had been missing – scomparire) da due giorni quando sono stati ritrovati (they were found – ritrovare) dai carabinieri
20. Avevamo appena cominciato (We had just started – cominciare) a mangiare quando Luisa ha telefonato (phoned – telefonare)
So … how did you get on? If you need any more help please leave a comment.
Comments:
Angela:
Many thanks for compiling the quiz. I would like to say I got 100% after your preparation blogs, but made a couple of silly mistakes (well 4 to be precise!) but really enjoyed the challenge and at least I’ve a much better understanding now. Also a lovely heartwarming tale re the injured dog.
Gary:
Salve Geoff: This question is not really about the use of the trapassato prossimo vs passato prossimo, but rather when to use “di +infinitive” vs. “che + conjugated verb”. I would like to use the sentence in #13 of the quiz to illustrate my confusion.
(Luisa mi ha detto che non era mai stata a Londra.) I understood that when the subjects of the two clauses are the same, you use “di + infinitive” or “di + past infinitive”. Can you help clear up my confusion with this.
Thanks in advance, Gary
Geoff:
@Gary Salve Gary, okay, let’s see if I can clarify.
1. ‘Luisa mi ha detto che non era mai stata a Londra’ would be more commonly used in everyday colloquial Italian, even if it would seem that ‘di non essere mai stata a Londra in vita sua’ should be correct according to the text books.
2. Colloquial usage aside, there is also a grammatical difference. The sentence ‘Luisa mi ha detto di non essere mai stata a Londra in vita sua’ translates as Luisa told me that she has never been to London in her life. Whereas ‘Luisa mi ha detto che non era mai stata a Londra in vita sua’ translates as Luisa told me that she had never been to London in her life. In other words she had never been to London in her life until now, or until last year etc. The difference lies in the ‘has never’ in the former, and the ‘had never’ in the latter. ‘Has never’ tells us that she still hasn’t been to London, and ‘had never’ tells us the she hadn’t been to London until a certain point in time, e.g. now/yesterday/last year and so on.
This becomes clearer if we extend the original sentence by adding the word finora (until now): Luisa mi ha detto che non era mai stata a Londra in vita sua finora. (Luisa told me that she’d never been to London in her life until now). Here you can see that her ‘never having been to London’ is a condition in the past, and now that she is in or has been to London that condition has ended.
Please let me know if that makes sense or not. Saluti da Geoff