Italian ⋙ Italian A1

Welcome to our Italian grammar course for beginners! Today we're going to talk about the past tense, Passato Prossimo.

Passato Prossimo is a past tense in Italian. It allows us to talk about events, actions, and experiences that began and finished in the past. If you want to tell about completed actions in the past, you need to use Passato Prossimo. Let's look at how to use it.

Passato Prossimo is a compound past tense. This is the most commonly used past tense in Italian. Usually, Passato Prossimo appears together with time expressions such as:
and others.
Passato Prossimo is an equivalent of the English Present Perfect and Past Simple. We can translate that in two ways, as in the examples below:

Passato Prossimo is formed by using one of the auxiliary verbs avere or essere in the present tense and the past participle.

Verb conjugation of avere in the present tense:

Subject + Avere (It.)	To have (Eng.)
Io ho	I have
Tu hai	You have
Lui / Lei ha	He / She / It has
Noi abbiamo	We have
Voi avete	You have
Loro hanno	They have

Verb conjugation of essere in the present tense:

Subject + Essere (It.)	To be (Eng.)
Io sono	I am
Tu sei	You are
Lui / Lei è	He / She /It is
Noi siamo	We are
Voi siete	You are
Loro sono	They are

So let's repeat it again.
Passato Prossimo is formed using two elements: the present tense of the auxiliary verbs avere (to have) or essere (to be) plus the past participle of the main verb.

Regular Past Participles

We mentioned above the conjugation of these two verbs in the present tense. Here's a guide on how to form the past participle in Italian.
The past participle is formed by replacing the infinitive endings with -ato, -uto, and -ito. Let's look at the grammar rules.

- ARE Verbs.
To form the Past Participle of regular -are verbs (verbs ending in -are), replace the -are ending of the infinitive with -ato.
Example:

- ERE Verbs.
To form the past participle of regular -ere verbs (verbs ending in -ere), replace the -ere ending of the infinitive with -uto.
Example:

- IRE Verbs.
To form the past participle of regular -ire verbs (verbs ending in -ire), replace the -ire ending of the infinitive with -ito.
Example:

Irregular Past Participles

Some Italian verbs have irregular past participles that do not follow the regular pattern. These forms must be memorized.
Examples:

Passato Prossimo with 'avere'

Let's look at how to form Passato Prossimo with the verb "avere" for regular verbs. For example, let's use the verb mangiare (to eat):

Passato Prossimo with 'essere'

Speaking about "avere," we should notice that it is used with the majority of verbs. On the other hand, some verbs use "essere" as the auxiliary verb, especially when indicating changes of state or motion. Also, we should use "essere" for verbs that don't take an object, and actions refer back to the subject. This is why we need to know which verbs take "essere." Here are some common ones: Before we explain how to use the verb "essere" in the Passato Prossimo, we need to mention a detail.

When "essere" is used as the auxiliary verb, the past participle must agree in number and gender with the subject. This agreement applies to reflexive verbs and certain intransitive verbs indicating motion/change of state. Here's how the agreement works:

Examples:

Now let's look at all forms of the verb andare (to go) in the Passato Prossimo:
Don't forget that not all verbs use "essere". The past participle agreement applies only when "essere" is used.

Passato Prossimo with both 'avere' and 'essere'

Some verbs can use both "avere" and "essere" as the auxiliary verb, depending on their context and meaning. Sometimes using the verbs "avere" and "essere" together with these verbs can change the meaning of the sentence.
Examples of verbs that can use both "avere" and "essere" as the auxiliary verb:
Cominciare (to begin) - cominciato (began)
Passare (to pass, to spend) - passato (past, spent)

Summary

In this lesson, you have acquired the knowledge of how to articulate past completed actions through the use of Passato Prossimo. It is essential to bear in mind that Passato Prossimo serves as a fundamental tense in the Italian language, commonly employed by Italians in their daily conversations or when narrating past events.
Pay attention to the new words and verbs you came across in the lesson:

We are waiting for you in the next lesson, where we will talk about Italian nouns. Good luck!