| the pluperfect indicative (l'indicativo trapassato)
The trapassato is formed with the imperfect of essere or avere and the past participle of the verb; if essere is needed, then the past participle must agree with the subject. It has an English equivalent: ero andato=I had gone; avevamo mangiato=we had eaten, etc. Like its English equivalent, the trapassato expresses an action that took place before another past action:
quando siamo andati al mare i miei figli non avevano ancora imparato a nuotare (when we went to the sea my children had not yet learned how to swim)
sono andata a casa sua ma lei era uscita (I went to her house but she had left)
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