Indicativo passato prossimo

The passato prossimo:

• reports actions that were completed in the past
• consists of two words:

How to conjugate a verb in the passato prossimo.

1. AVERE or ESSERE?

• • Most verbs are conjugated with avere.
  • Verbs indicating movement, inactivity, and changes in the state of being are conjugated with essere. This is a list of the most common ones:

• • Reflexive and reciprocal verbs are conjugated with essere.
  • Piacere is conjugated with essere.
  • See section below for more details on avere / essere.

2. Choose the correct person of avere/essere:

3. Participio passato (past participle)

• • The participio passato of regular verbs is formed by:
    • dropping the infinitive ending -are/ere/ire;
    • adding -ato (-are verbs), -uto (-ere verbs)*, -ito (-ire verbs) to the remaining stem.

• • Many verbs have irregular past participles:

4. Agreement. When the passato prossimo is formed with essere, the participio passato always agrees with the subject of the verb. It can have the four endings -o, -a, -i, -e.

Uso del passato prossimo

• Use the passato prossimo to say:
  • What you have done some time in the past.

I have already gone to the store.
Sono già andata al negozio.

Ho fatto la spesa due volte questa settimana.
I have gone grocery shopping twice this week.

• • What you have done thus far.

Finora abbiamo sempre pagato in contanti.
So far we’ve always paid cash.

• • What you did and what happened at some particular time.

Ho fatto le spese sabato scorso.
I went shopping last Saturday.

È successo ieri.
It happened yesterday.

Essere and avere

We have seen above that some verbs always take avere and others always take essere. Some verbs, however, may be conjugated with either avere or essere depending on how they are used.

1. Verbs that can be both transitive or intransitive, such as cambiare, cominciare, finire, passare, salire, scendere:

a. use essere if the verb is used intransitively (there is no direct object in the sentence).

b. use avere if the verb is used transitively (they are followed by a direct object).

2. Verbs of motion, such as correre, saltare, volare:

a. use essere if a point of departure or arrival is mentioned.

b. use avere in all other cases.

Ho viaggiato molto: sono andata in Italia, in Francia e in Spagna.
I traveled a lot: I traveled to Italy, France, and Spain.

3. dovere, potere, volere

a. use avere when they are not followed by an infinitive.

- Sei uscito?      - No, non ho potuto.
- Did you go out?  - No, I could’t.

b. when they are followed by an infinitive, use avere if the verb in the infinitive requires avere; if the verb in the infinitive requires essere, you may use either avere or essere.

Ho dovuto pagare.
I had to pay.

Non sono potuti partire.
Non hanno potuto partire.
They couldn’t leave.

c. if the verb in the infinitive is reflexive, use avere if the reflexive pronoun is attached to the infinitive; use essere if the reflexive pronoun precedes the auxiliary.

Mi sono dovuta arrangiare.
Ho dovuto arrangiarmi.
I had to get by.

Non si sono voluti alzare presto.
Non hanno voluto alzarsi presto.
They refused to get up early.

4. You can use either avere or essere with some common weather expressions:

è/ha grandinato     è/ha piovuto   è/ha nevicato
it hailed           it rained      it snowed