In Italian, the passato prossimo is the tense used most frequently to relate completed past events.
The English equivalents of the passato prossimo, using the verb mangiare in the first person singular are as follows: I have eaten, I ate, and I did eat (emphatic).
The passato prossimo is a compound tense, formed with the appropriate form of an auxiliary verb (avere or essere) and the past participle of the verb. The past participle of regular verbs is formed by adding an appropriate ending to the infinitive stem. See the following table for each of the three verb conjugations, in which the stem of each verb is in bold.
The English equivalents of the passato prossimo, using the verb mangiare in the first person singular are as follows: I have eaten, I ate, and I did eat (emphatic).
The passato prossimo is a compound tense, formed with the appropriate form of an auxiliary verb (avere or essere) and the past participle of the verb. The past participle of regular verbs is formed by adding an appropriate ending to the infinitive stem. See the following table for each of the three verb conjugations, in which the stem of each verb is in bold.
Infinitive | Ending | Past Participle |
| amare | -ato | amato |
| vendere | -uto | venduto |
| finire | -ito | finito |
- For verbs conjugated with avere as the auxiliary verb, the past participle does not change unless a direct object pronoun precedes the verb (we will cover direct object pronouns in subsequent lessons).
amare
vendere
finire
ho amato ho venduto ho finito hai amato hai venduto hai finito ha amato ha venduto ha finito abbiamo amato abbiamo venduto abbiamo finito avete amato avete venduto avete finito hanno amato hanno venduto hanno finito
NB (Nota Bene): There is one important spelling variation: The past participles of verbs which end in -scere or -cere change their ending to -sciuto or -ciuto (conoscere --> conosciuto; piacere --> piaciuto).
Examples:Chi non ha finito il compito?
Who hasn’t finished the homework?
Mia madre mi ha comprato un regalo.
My mother bought me a gift.
Abbiamo creduto all’amore fino alla fine.
We believed in love until the end.
Ho conosciuto un ragazzo su Facebook.
I met a guy on Facebook. - For verbs conjugated with essere, the past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject of the verb.
andare
cadere
partire
sono andato/a sono caduto/a sono partito/a sei andato/a sei caduto/a sei partito/a è andato/a è caduto/a è partito/a siamo andati/e siamo caduti/e siamo partiti/e siete andati/e siete caduti/e siete partiti/e sono andati/e sono caduti/e sono partiti/e
Examples:Justin è andato in palestra.
Justin went to the gym.
Non sono arrivati in orario.
They didn’t arrive on time.
Sei uscita ieri sera?
Did you go out yesterday evening?- Essere is used as the auxiliary verb with most intransitive verbs (a verb that cannot have a direct object). Most of these verbs are verbs of motion or being. Following is a list of the most commonly used verbs requiring the use of essere in the passato prossimo.
accadere ... to happen morire ... to die andare ... to go nascere ... to be born arrivare ... to arrive parere ... to seem avvenire ... to happen partire (ripartire) ... to leave/depart bastare ... to be enough passare (ripassare) ... to stop by cadere ... to fall piacere ... to be pleasing cambiare ... to change/become different restare ... to stay capitare ... to happen rimanere ... to remain costare ... to cost ritornare (tornare) ... to return crescere ... to grow riuscire ... to succeed dimagrire ... to lose weight salire (risalire) ... to go up dipendere ... to depend scappare ... to run away/escape diventare (divenire) ... to become scendere ... to go down durare ... to last scivolare ... to slide/slip entrare ... to go in, enter sembrare ... to seem evadere ... to escape stare ... to stay fuggire ... to escape/flee succedere ... to happen guarire ... to get well uscire ... to go out ingrassare ... to get fat, gain weight venire ... to come mancare ... to lack, be missing - In addition to these verbs above, all reflexive verbs require the use of essere in the passato prossimo.
Mi sono alzata alle 10.
I woke up at 10.
Si è rasato la testa.
He shaved his head.
I ragazzi si sono vestiti in fretta.
The boys got dressed in a hurry. - The verb essere itself uses the past participle of stare (stato), making the passato prossimo of essere and stare the same.
Sono stato sfortunato.
I was unlucky.
Siamo stati a casa.
We stayed home.
- Essere is used as the auxiliary verb with most intransitive verbs (a verb that cannot have a direct object). Most of these verbs are verbs of motion or being. Following is a list of the most commonly used verbs requiring the use of essere in the passato prossimo.