Breakdown of Non appena il gigante fu morto, l'eroe prese il trono.
essere
to be
prendere
to take
l'eroe
the hero (m)
morire
to die
Questions & Answers about Non appena il gigante fu morto, l'eroe prese il trono.
Why is it fu morto instead of the more common era morto?
Fu morto is the trapassato remoto (preterite perfect). It is used because the action in the main clause (prese) is in the passato remoto (historical past), and the giant's death happened immediately before it. Time expressions like non appena combined with a main action in the passato remoto trigger this specific tense.
Does adding non to appena change the meaning to something negative?
Why does this compound tense use fu (from essere) instead of ebbe (from avere)?
The verb morire (to die) is an intransitive verb that describes a change of state, so it always takes essere as its auxiliary verb in any compound tense. Because it uses essere, the past participle must agree with the masculine singular subject, resulting in morto.
Could I say ha preso instead of prese in the main clause?