Italian Grammar Lessons: The Past / Passato Prossimo

This lesson will show you how to use the principle Italian past tense, the passato prossimo.
Italian has a near past tense and a remote past tense. The latter is used mostly in narratives
(novels and the like) so in normal conversation you will not normally need to choose between them.
Just use the passato prossimo, as explained on this page.
For English speakers, there is one point of confusion: in English, you choose between the Simple Past
tense (I studied) and the Present Perfect tense (I have studied). When speaking Italian, both
forms would translate as the passato prossimo, even though the passato prossimo LOOKS more like
the second one (Ho studiato = I have studied??) because of the use of the auxiliary verb avere.
Its confusing, but the thing to remember is that when youre talking, you use the passato prossimo
99% of the time.
The passato prossimo is formed with the auxiliary verb essere OR avere + participio passato (past
participle).
Just in case youre still vague on the conjugation of essere and avere, here they are:
essere to be
io sono
tu sei
lui/lei
noi siamo
voi siete
loro sono
avere to have
io ho
tu hai
lui/lei ha
noi abbiamo
voi avete
loro hanno
You probably dont know the participio passato (past participle) of the verbs youve learnt, but not
to worry!
You can normally form the participio passato from the infinitive of a verb (this only applies to
regular verbs) by changing the ending of verb:
-are ato (mangiare-mangiato)
-ere uto (avere-avuto)
-ire ito (dormire-dormito)
So when you want to talk about a past action or event, you need to use avere or essere plus the past
participle. But which one? Avere or essere?
The majority of verbs use avere, just like in English (I have studied). For example:
Paola ha dormito a lungo.
Mario ha visitato un museo.
Io e Marco abbiamo pranzato in un locale tipico.
I ragazzi hanno mangiato una pizza.
But essere is used with:
verbs of movement
verbs of changing state
reflexive verbs
For example:
Paola andata al cinema.
Mario andato al cinema.
Io e Maria siamo andate al cinema.
I ragazzi sono andati a casa.
Note that with essere the ending of the past participle changes to reflect the gender and
singluar/plural of the subject.
The final thing you need to remember is that there are regular and irregular past participle forms.
Examples of regular past participle forms:
andare (essere) andato/a
avere (avere) avuto
tornare (essere) tornato/a
dormire (avere) dormito
cercare (avere) cercato
montare (avere) montato
mangiare (avere) mangiato
preparare (avere) preparato
guardare (avere) guardato
Examples of irregular past participle forms:
fare (avere) fatto
mettere (avere) messo
venire (essere) venuto
prendere (avere) preso
essere (essere)stato/a
leggere (avere) letto
rimanere (essere) rimasto
aprire (avere) aperto
dire (avere) detto
scegliere (avere) scelto
scrivere (avere) scritto
uscire (essere) uscito/a
vedere (avere) visto