Passato+Prossimo

 ===[|Passato prossimo irregolare] === ==[|IL PASSATO PROSSIMO: THE ITALIAN PAST TENSE] ==  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".
 * 1) Passato prossimo (Italian Topics)
 * 2) Ciao! Textbook 7.1 Il Passato Prossimo con avere
 * 3) Effective Learning: Passato Prossimo
 * 4) LA CASA DI ESSERE: il passato prossimo
 * 5) EVU

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 è andat**o** in Francia. Maria è andat**a** in Francia. Noi siamo andat**i** 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! 