Learn French: J'ai visité Rome l'année dernière.

You would use il y a followed by the amount of time. To say 'I visited Rome a year ago', you would say J'ai visité Rome il y a un an. Our example sentence uses l'année dernière because it means 'last year', which doesn't use the word 'ago'.

Why is it l'année dernière instead of l'an dernier?

Both mean 'last year' and are often interchangeable. However, année focuses more on the whole duration or span of the year, while an treats the year as a simple unit of time. L'année dernière is slightly more common in everyday spoken French when talking about events that happened during that time.

Why does the adjective dernière come after the noun?

While some short adjectives go before the noun, dernier (and its feminine form dernière) changes meaning based on its position. When it means 'the one just passed' (like last year or last week), it goes after the noun. If it meant 'the final one in a sequence' (like the last year of school), it would go before the noun.

Can I use visiter to say 'I visited my friend in Rome'?