Word
Quando ebbero studiato la ceramica, gli esperti capirono la civiltà antica.
Meaning
When they had studied the pottery, the experts understood the ancient civilization.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Quando ebbero studiato la ceramica, gli esperti capirono la civiltà antica.
avere
to have
quando
when
studiare
to study
capire
to understand
Questions & Answers about Quando ebbero studiato la ceramica, gli esperti capirono la civiltà antica.
Why is ebbero studiato used here instead of the regular past perfect (avevano studiato)?
Ebbero studiato is the trapassato remoto (preterite perfect). It is required here because it describes an action completed right before another past action that is written in the passato remoto (capirono). You will almost always see it introduced by time words like quando, appena, or dopo che.
How exactly is ebbero studiato formed?
It combines the passato remoto of the helping verb (avere) with the past participle of the action verb (studiare). Here, ebbero is the 'they' form of avere in the passato remoto, and studiato is the past participle.
Could we use the passato prossimo for the second verb, capirono?
If you changed capirono to a different past tense, you would also have to change ebbero studiato. The trapassato remoto can only exist when the main verb of the sentence is in the passato remoto. For example, if you used hanno capito, the first verb would need to be the regular past perfect: avevano studiato.
Why does the subject gli esperti appear in the second clause rather than at the very beginning?