Learn Hardcore Italian: Il treno è arrivato poco fa. - The train arrived a short while ago.

The sentence uses the passato prossimo, which in Italian expresses a completed action in the past (similar to the English “present perfect” or “simple past,” depending on context). It’s formed with the auxiliary verb essere plus the past participle arrivato.

Why is the auxiliary verb essere used here instead of avere?

In Italian, most intransitive verbs indicating movement or change of state—including arrivare (“to arrive”)—use essere as their auxiliary in compound tenses. Transitive verbs (those taking a direct object) generally use avere.

Why does the past participle end in -o (arrivato) and not -a?

Italian past participles must agree in gender and number with the subject when the auxiliary is essere. Since treno is masculine singular, the participle is arrivato (masc. sing.), not arrivata (fem. sing.).

What does poco fa mean, and how is it used?

Poco fa literally means “a little while ago.” It’s a fixed time-expression placed after the verb (or at the beginning of the sentence) to indicate that something happened very recently.

Why do we say poco fa and not fa poco?