il passato prossimo: the italian past tense

OK ragazzi, today's tutorino goof-proof grammar lesson is going to give you something to talk about around the water cooler on Monday mornings. We're going to cover the past, so you'll finally be able to tell everyone what you did on the weekend - in italiano!

The most commonly used past tense form in spoken Italian is called the passato prossimo. It describes an action or event that both began and ended in the past. Its equivalents in English are I ate, I did eat, I have eaten.

In Italian the past has two parts: the present tense of avere or essere (which we learned much earlier on - review it if you have to) + something called the "past participle". The past participle is formed as follows:

–are verbs: drop the –are and add –ato (e.g. parlare - parlato)

–ere verbs: drop the –ere and add –uto (e.g. vendere - venduto)

–ire verbs: drop the –ire and add –ito (e.g. partire - partito)

Think of it as adding "ed" to an English verb in the past.

So "I ate" is "ho mangiato" - the present tense of avere plus the past participle of mangiare.

"You sang" is "hai cantato". "He spoke" is "ha parlato". Get it? You take the form of avere or essere that matches the person doing the action, and put the verb denoting the action in the past participle form.

Now, the first question that usually comes up when people learn the passato prossimo is, "How do I know when to use avere and when to use essere?" It's simple. You use avere for all but the following verbs (and a few others but these are the most common). Note: some of these verbs have irregular past participles. I have indicated where this is the case.

andare – to go

venire – to come – venuto

entrare – to enter

uscire – to go out

arrivare – to arrive

rimanere – to remain or stay – rimasto

partire – to leave or depart

ritornare – to return or come back

nascere – to be born – nato

crescere – to grow up – cresciuto

morire – to die – morto

scendere – to go down, descend – sceso

salire – to climb, go up, ascend

succedere – to happen – successo

sembrare – to seem

diventare – to become

durare – to last

costare – to cost

piacere – to please – piaciuto

cadere – to fall

essere – to be – stato

stare – to be

One very important thing to know about verbs conjugated with essere in the past is that their participles agree in gender and number with the subject (i.e., the person doing the verb). For example:

Luigi e’ andato in Francia.

Maria e’ andata in Francia.

Noi siamo andati in Francia.

Notice how the final vowel of the past participle changes to reflect the gender and number of the person doing the verb.

To negate a verb in the past, place "non" before avere or essere: Non ho mangiato le fragole.

We saw a few irregular participles of essere verbs. It's important to know that a number of avere participles are irregular too. Here are some of the more common ones:

bere (to drink) – bevuto

conoscere (to know) – conosciuto

dire (to say) – detto

fare (to do) – fatto

leggere (to read) – letto

perdere (to lose) – perso/perduto

prendere (to take) – preso

scegliere (to choose) – scelto

trascorrere (to spend) – trascorso

vedere (to see) – visto

vincere (to win) - vinto

And that's it - hai imparato il passato prossimo!

Comments

[me]

thank you so much for your help, i have italian exams next week and im freaking out :) this was a great help!

[njmotmot]

Thanks for the clear explanation! I have been doing Pimsleur and Fluenz Italian preparatory to a trip to Italy. Fluenz only does the past with verbs that use essere. Pimsleur does both forms but doesn't explain why there is a difference. I speak Spanish so it is interesting to see the differences.

[Hilary]

You have written this in such an easy style, it is as if you are talking to me. It all makes sense now. Ho imparato il passato prossimo! Grazie

[Don]

I have been struggling with when to use essere and when to use avere. This is most helpful.