What is the difference between 'passato prossimo' and 'passato remoto'?
‘Passato prossimo’ and ‘passato remoto’ are two tenses that can be used to express actions in the past. ‘Passato prossimo’ is formed by using the auxiliary verb 'essere' or 'avere' conjugated in the present tense with the past participle of the main verb. For instance, with the verb 'to eat' the conjugation is: io ho mangiato, tu hai mangiato, egli/ella ha mangiato, noi abbiamo mangiato, voi avete mangiato, essi hanno mangiato. This is the most used form of the two, and it can translate both as ‘I have eaten’ and as ‘I ate’, especially in informal conversation. The ‘passato remoto’ doesn’t use the auxiliary verb and conjugates as follows: io mangi-ai, tu mangi-asti, egli/ella mangi-ò, noi mangi-ammo, voi mangi-aste, essi mangi-arono. This tense is used rarely, normally to express historical facts, actions that happened in a very remote past, or in literary prose.
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