Teaching the Italian trapassato prossimo tense to Polish native speakers

The Italian pluperfect (trapassato prossimo) differs from other past tenses due to the fact that it implies a point of reference situated in the past. Although it is frequently used in both written and spoken language, little space is devoted to this tense in textbooks of Italian for foreigners. This can be explained by taking into consideration the following two factors: on the one hand, the Italian pluperfect usually can be substituted by other tenses (like the present perfect, passato prossimo, and preterite, passato remoto); on the other hand, the choice of the speaker to use this tense is often difficult to explain. In other words, the abovementioned point of reference is sometimes difficult to locate. A full comprehension of the Italian pluperfect can be problematic for a Polish speaker, as contemporary Polish does not have tenses with similar functions. The aim of this paper is to reflect on the teaching of the Italian pluperfect to Polish students, highlighting some linguistic issues that should be considered by the teacher.

The idea of the past in the past: the trapassato prossimo tense and its semantic equivalents in Polish

The article is dedicated to a comparative analysis of Verb’s grammar tenses in both Polish and Italian language. The essay examines the methods of expressing the dimension of the pluperfect tense (Italian trapassato prossimo) in the modern Polish language. Except only few verbs which maintained their pluperfect form, Polish as a language has evolved towards the phenomenon of lexicalization, which is possible to describe as replacing grammar constructions with lexical tools.