fa

ago

adverb fah Common

Origin: From the verb fare (to do/make); short for 'fa … tempo' (makes … time)

Usage Note

Fa in time expressions always follows the quantity — tre giorni fa (three days ago), un anno fa (a year ago) — the opposite of English word order. It is the third-person singular present of fare repurposed as a postpositional time adverb. Do not confuse it with fra/tra, which points forward in time (fra tre giorni = in three days).

Examples

"L'ho incontrato due settimane fa."

Natural Translation

I met him two weeks ago.

Literal Translation

Him-I-have met two weeks ago.

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