Conjugating regular Italian verbs in the Passato Prossimo
The Passato Prossimo is most often used like what we would call the "Simple Past" or "Present Perfect". It is formed by using either the verb essere or avere in the present tense followed by the past participle of the verb you want to use. For Example if you wanted to say "I ate" you would first conjugate avere in the present tense and then follow it with mangiato, the past participle for mangiare. With the subject pronoun included it would look like this;Io ho mangiato (I ate or I have eaten)
Regular past participles are easy to form. You simple remove the infinitive ending and apply the past participle ending as shown below;
Verbs ending in ARE use ATO, for example; mangiare - are = mangi + ato = mangiato
Verbs ending in ERE use UTO, for example; credere - ere = cred + uto = creduto
Verbs ending in IRE use ITO, for example; finire - ire = fin + ito = finito
There are many verbs that use an irregular past participle. These you will need to commit to memory and many of these can be found on pages 54 & 55 of Italian Verb Drills by Paola Nanni-Tate I like to use math equations as an example but first here are the past participle endings for all regular verbs;
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Verbs ending in ARE ato |
Verbs ending in ERE uto |
Verbs ending in IRE ito |
To conjugate the regular ARE verbs in the passato prossimo = conjugated auxiliary verb + (infinitive verb – infinitive ending = verb stem + past participle ending) = conjugated verb. Example;
Abbiamo (to have for we) + [Parlare (To Speak) - are = Parl + ato (past pariciple ending)] = Abbiamo Parlato (We spoke or we have spoken)
Parlare conjugated in the passato prossimo
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Io Tu Lui/Lei Noi Voi Loro |
Ho parlato Hai parlato Ha parlato Abbiamo parlato Avete parlato Hanno parlato |
I spoke or have spoken You spoke or have spoken He/She/It spoke or has spoken We spoke or have spoken Y'all spoke or have spoken They spoke or have spoken |
To conjugate the regular ERE verbs in the passato prossimo = conjugated auxiliary verb + (infinitive verb – infinitive ending = verb stem + past participle ending) = conjugated verb. Example;
Abbiamo (to have for we) + [Credere (To Believe) - ere = Cred + uto (past pariciple ending)] = Abbiamo Creduto (We believed or we have believed)
Credere conjugated in the passato prossimo
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Io Tu Lui/Lei Noi Voi Loro |
Ho creduto Hai creduto Ha creduto Abbiamo creduto Avete creduto Hanno creduto |
I believed or have believed You believed or have believed He/She/It believed or has believed We believed or have believed Y'all believed or have believed They believed or have believed |
To conjugate the regular IRE verbs in thepassato prossimo = conjugated auxiliary verb + (infinitive verb – infinitive ending = verb stem + past participle ending) = conjugated verb. Example;
Abbiamo (to have for we) + [Sentire (To Hear) - ire = Sent + ito (past pariciple ending)] = Abbiamo Sentito (We heard or we have heard)
Credere conjugated in the passato prossimo
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Io Tu Lui/Lei Noi Voi Loro |
Ho sentito Hai sentito Ha sentito Abbiamo sentito Avete sentito Hanno sentito |
I heard or have heard You heard or have heard He/She/It heard or has heard We heard or have heard Y'all heard or have heard They heard or have heard |
Choosing the correct auxiliary verb when using Passato Prossimo
The book "English Grammar for Students of Italian" says regarding auxiliary verb selection for the Passato Prossimo:
"1. All transitive verbs (the verbs which can take a direct object...) use the auxiliary avere.
2. All reflexive verbs use the auxiliary essere ...
3. Intrasitive verbs ... can use avere or essere ..."
Due to the third point, some memory work is required to determine which verbs use essere. You can find a list of common verbs conjugated with Essere in the Passato Prossimo on page 53 of the book Verb Drills by Paola Nanni-Tate
It is important to note here than when you use a verb in the Passato Prossimo with the verb essere, the past participle must agree with the subject in gender and number. For example the verb andare or "to go"
Lui è andato (he went) or Lei è andata (she went)
Gli uomini sono andanti (the men went) or Le donne sono andate (the women went)
As is always the case with gender when the plural subject is a mix of masculine and feminine you use the masculine. Now lets look at the verb Andare in the passato prossimo = conjugated auxiliary verb + (infinitive verb – infinitive ending = verb stem + past participle ending that agrees in gender and number) = conjugated verb. Example;
siamo (to be for we) + [Andare (To go) - are = And + ati (past pariciple ending for masculine plural)] = Siamo Andati (We went or we have gone)
Andare conjugated in the passato prossimo
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Io Tu Lui/Lei Noi Voi Loro |
Sono andato or andata Sei andato or andata È andato or andata Siamo andati or andate Siete andati or andate Sono andati or andate |
I went or have gone You went or have gone He/She/It went or has gone We went or have gone Y'all went or have gone They went or have gone |
As with all other tenses, there are verbs that are irregular by having irregular past participles. These past participles will have to be committed to memory in order to learn them. A list of the more common irregular past participles can be found on pages 54 & 55 of the book Verb Drills by Paola Nanni-Tate
| You can learn more about the passato prossimo tense of Italian verbs on pages 76 - 79 of the book "English Grammar for Students of Italian" by Sergio Adorni and Karen Primorac, copyright 1995. If you do not own this book, don't worry, it is not mandatory that you do. However, it can be very useful in a lot of ways and if you would like to know more about this book and where to buy it, click on the graphic link to the right or simply go to our online bookstore. | You can learn more about the passato prossimo tense of Italian verbs on pages 114 - 119 (page #'s may vary as I have an older edition) of "Ciao", copyright 1986. If you do not own this book, don't worry, it is not mandatory that you do. However, it can be very useful in a lot of ways and if you would like to know more about this book and where to buy it, click on the graphic link to the right or simply go to our online bookstore. | You can learn more about the passato prossimo tense of Italian verbs on pages 52 - 60 of "Italian Verb Drills" by Paola Nanni-Tate, copyright 2011. If you do not own this book, don't worry, it is not mandatory that you do. However, it can be very useful in a lot of ways and if you would like to know more about this book and where to buy it, click on the graphic link to the right or simply go to our online bookstore. |
