The present perfect and simple past

The passato prossimo is the verb tense Italians use to talk about things that happened in the past, whether yesterday (ieri) or two years ago (due anni fa). Ho ordinato un caffè means both I have ordered a coffee and I ordered a coffee.

There are other past tenses in Italian, such as passato remoto, which is a historical past (mostly used in literature and for historical events, not much in everyday Italian, with a few exceptions). You will study this tense at the intermediate level.

The passato prossimo is made up of two words: (1) the present tense of avere or essere, and (2) the past participle of the verb, as in the examples:

Ho comprato una casa.

Sono andato a casa.

How do you form the past participles of verbs?

• For verbs in –are: –are turns into –ato, as in comprare > comprato.
• For verbs in –ere: –ere turns into –uto, as in ricevere > ricevuto.
• For verbs in –ire: –ire turns into –ito, as in preferire > preferito.

How do you know whether to use avere or essere?

• Avere is basically always used when a direct object follows an action, as in Ho ordinato un caffè [I ordered a coffee]. In this case, caffè is the direct object. A direct object can also be a person, as in Ho conosciuto Federico [I met Federico]. The direct object may not be explicit, as in Abbiamo mangiato [We ate] and Non ho dormito [I did not sleep].
• Essere is basically used with verbs that express moving from one place to another (e.g. andare), when there is no direct object, but rather merely the action of moving to or from a place, as you can see in La storia di Rosa:

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• Other verbs that take essere are:
  • Verbs expressing states of being like nascere [to be born], crescere [to grow], diventare [to become], morire [to die], rimanere/restare/stare [to stay] and essere [to be].
  • stare and essere share the same past participle: Sono stato/a means I have been, I was, and I stayed.
  • Reflexive verbs (which you will learn in elementary II) also take essere.

Study the following conjugations:

As you can see, comprato never changes.

As you can see, partito takes the same form as an adjective: partito, partita, partiti, partite. It depends on who the subject is: a woman will say sono partita alle nove, but two men will say siamo partiti alle nove.

Many verbs, especially in –ere and –ire, have irregular past participles, which you need to memorize:

* A very few verbs can take either avere or essere, depending on the nuance of the situation. Don’t worry about it now.