raccontò

Raccontò is the third-person singular form of the Italian verb raccontare in the passato remoto, the narrative past tense. It means “he told” or “she told” a story and is used to describe events that are part of a story or historical account. This form is common in literary, historical, and formal writing, and is less frequent in everyday spoken Italian, where the passato prossimo is usually preferred.

Conjugation and form. In the passato remoto, raccontare follows a regular -are verb pattern. The third-person singular is raccontò, while the full basic paradigm is: io raccontai, tu raccontasti, egli raccontò, noi raccontammo, voi raccontaste, essi raccontarono. The accent on the final o in raccontò marks the tense and helps distinguish it from other forms such as the noun racconto (a tale) or present-tense forms.

Usage. Raccontò is typically found in classic novels, chronicles, memoirs, and historical narratives. It signals a distance in time and a focus on recounting events as part of a sequence in the plot or historical description. In contemporary speech, speakers commonly use the passato prossimo (ha raccontato) instead, reserving passato remoto for stylistic purposes, regional usage, or formal literary contexts.

See also. The Italian passato remoto as a tense, the verb raccontare, and related past tenses in Italian grammar.