Italian All-in-One For Dummies (177 page)

The
trapassato
usually occurs in a dependent clause, introduced most often by the word
che
(
that
) when the verb in the main clause is a present or a past perfect conditional (see
Table 4-1
, later in this chapter). You use it to express an action that has been completed before the action in the main clause. For example:

Avrei preferito
che tu
ti fossi sposata
con Gino.
(
I would've preferred that you marry Gino.
)

The verb in the main clause must be in some specific tense:

The past conditional or the past perfect (see
Chapter 3
in Book V):

Past conditional:
Sarebbe stato
meglio che tu non
avessi detto
nulla.
(
It would've been better had you said nothing.
)

The imperfect (see
Chapter 1
in Book V):

Mia madre
credeva
che io
fossi diventata
importante.
(
My mom believed that I had become important.
)

The
passato prossimo
(
present perfect;
see
Chapter 1
in Book V):

Ci
è parso
che
fossero
già
partiti
.
(
It seemed to us that they had already left./We thought they'd already left.
)

The
trapassato prossimo
(
past perfect;
see
Chapter 3
of Book V):

Non avevamo creduto nemmeno per un momento che Claudia avesse scritto il tema da sola.
(
We didn't believe for a moment that Claudia had written the essay by herself.
)

You also use the
trapassato
frequently in “if” clauses, which are discussed in
Chapter 5
of Book V.

Students always worry about knowing when to put what tense where. A good rule of thumb, at least with the
trapassato,
is that when you have a compound tense in the main or independent clause, you place the
trapassato
in the dependent clause. Of course, this rule of thumb isn't set in stone, as evidenced in the previous verb table showing the conjugation of
mangiare:
Pensavo
che
aveste
già
mangiato
!
(
I thought that you had already eaten!
)
Let practice, repetition, and context be your guide!

Sequencing Your Tenses in the Subjunctive

Italian has four subjunctive tenses: the present subjunctive, the imperfect subjunctive, the past subjunctive, and the past perfect subjunctive (the first two are covered in
Chapter 6
of Book IV; the other two are discussed earlier in this chapter). The best way to sequence verb tenses in the subjunctive is to consider the relationship between the verb in the main clause and the verb in the dependent clause and determine the time frame of the two “actions”: whether the two verbs are contemporaneous (happening in the same period of time), or whether the one in the dependent clause is antecedent (occurring prior to) or subsequent to (occurring later than) the verb in the main clause.
Table 4-1
presents all the different variations to keep in mind while you're in the subjunctive mood.