Learn Italian: Non appena la principessa fu nata, la strega preparò la maledizione. - As soon as the princess was born, the witch prepared the curse.

Fu nata is the trapassato remoto (past anterior). We use it here because the main action, preparò, is in the passato remoto (historical past), and the birth happened immediately before it. Temporal phrases like non appena, appena, and dopo che trigger this specific tense combination to show tight chronological order.

Does the non in non appena make the sentence negative?

Not at all! Non appena and appena mean exactly the same thing: 'as soon as'. The non here is a stylistic addition that emphasizes the immediacy of the action, but it doesn't change the meaning to a negative one.

Why is the auxiliary verb fu instead of ebbe?

The verb nascere (to be born) always takes the auxiliary essere in compound tenses. The passato remoto of essere for the third person singular is fu, which we combine with the past participle to form the trapassato remoto.

Why does the participle end in '-a' (nata)?