Italian · Chapter 20 · Lesson 9 · Grammar primer
Perfect infinitive past subjunctive
Prescribed by the Edexcel specification.
The short version
Dopo wants aver mangiato, not a clause
When the subject does not change across a sentence, Italian drops dopo che plus a conjugated verb in favour of dopo plus the perfect infinitive, aver or essere and a participle. It is shorter than the English after-clause and the more natural Italian.
Dopo aver mangiato, sono uscito.
Penso che sia is present, penso che sia stato is past
Any trigger that needs the subjunctive still needs it once the action is finished, but the auxiliary switches to its present-subjunctive form plus a participle. abbia mangiato and sia arrivata are the past subjunctive, built exactly like the passato prossimo underneath.
Penso che abbia mangiato.
That's the gist. The full article goes deeper - more examples, the edge cases, the why - and the practice below scores like a vocabulary session and earns the same XP.
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Lesson 9 of 19 in this chapter