Learn Italian: È tardi: ormai il treno è partito. - It is late: by now the train has left.

È tardi: ormai il treno è partito.

It is late: by now the train has left.

Breakdown of È tardi: ormai il treno è partito.

Questions & Answers about È tardi: ormai il treno è partito.

Why use ormai instead of già to mean "already" or "by now"?

Ormai implies that a point of no return has been reached (like saying "at this point" or "by now"). While già just neutrally means "already," ormai emphasizes that because it is late, there is nothing you can do about the train being gone.

Why is it è partito (is left) instead of ha partito (has left)?

Verbs of movement, like partire (to leave or depart), take essere (to be) instead of avere (to have) when forming the past tense (passato prossimo). In Italian, you literally say "the train is departed."

Could I say il treno è tardi if the train itself was the thing running late?

No, tardi only means "late" in terms of the time of day, like when saying "it's late" (è tardi). If a person or a vehicle is delayed or running behind schedule, you must use in ritardo. So, a delayed train is il treno è in ritardo.

If we were talking about two trains leaving, how would the end of the sentence change?

Because the helper verb is essere, the ending of the past participle (partito) must act like an adjective and match the subject. For multiple masculine trains (i treni), the sentence would change to sono partiti.