Passato Prossimo Italian – The Most Used Past Tense in Italian

What is the Passato Prossimo?

Passato Prossimo is the main past tense in Italian.

In English this would be the simple past and present perfect tenses.

Examples:
Ho mangiato – I ate, I have eaten
Sono andato – I went, I have gone

When do I use the Passato Prossimo in Italian?

You have to use Passato Prossimo in Italian when talking about:

•  events in the recent past
  Example:
  Ieri sono andata a ballare.
  Yesterday I went dancing.
•  an event that happened a long time ago, but that still have effects on the present
  Example:
  Ho preso la laurea nel 1999.
  I graduated in 1999.
•  an action that took place in a period of time that hasn’t ended
  Example:
  Questa settimana ho bevuto solo cinque caffè.
  This week I drank only five coffees.
  (The week is still going on.)

Common expressions used with Passato Prossimo in Italian

There are some words, adverbs or expressions, that you can use when saying something in the passato prossimo in Italian. Here the most common ones:

ieri – yesterday
ieri mattina – yesterday morning
ieri pomeriggio – yesterday afternoon
ieri sera – last night
l’altro ieri – the day before yesterday
due giorni fa – two days ago
una settimana fa – one week ago
mercoledì¬ scorso – last Wednesday
un anno fa – one year ago
la settimana scorsa – last week
il mese scorso – last month
l’anno scorso – last year
un’ora fa – one hour ago
alcuni giorni fa – some days ago

How do I make the Passato Prossimo in Italian?

Examples:

Ho mangiato – I ate
Sono andato – I went

As you can see in the examples Passato Prossimo is a compound tense: in order to make the Passato Prossimo you will need to combine two elements:

1. An auxiliary verb essere or avere in the present tense. 
2. The past participle of the verb you want to turn into the past, in Italian Participio Passato.

When to use essere or avere with passato prossimo depends on the verb that we want to turn into the past tense, for example mangiare (to eat) requires avere (ho mangiato), while andare (to go) uses essere (sono andato). I will explain how to select the right verb in more detail later in this article.

Once you picked the right auxiliary (essere or avere) you will have to conjugate it in the present tense agreeing with the subject of the sentence. 

Let’s refresh the verbs essere (to be) and avere (to have) in the present tense of the indicative mood: 

Ok, the first step is done. Now you will need to make the past participle of the main verb.

How to make the past participle in Italian

The past participle, or participio passato,  is very easy to create. 

• Verbs ending in -are in the infinitive form (the not conjugated form) turn -are into -ato.
  Example:
  mangiare / mangiato
  to eat /  eaten
• Verbs ending in -ere in the infinitive form change -ere into -uto.
  Example:
  credere / creduto
  to believe / believed
• Verbs ending in -ire in the infinitive form replace -ire with -ito.
  Example:
  dormire / dormito
  to sleep / slept

Ok, now that you have all the ingredients, you can combine the auxiliary (essere or avere) with the past participle to make the passato prossimo! 

Examples:
hanno mangiato – they ate
ha creduto – he believed
avete dormito – you (pl.) slept

Passato Prossimo with essere

Pretty easy, right? However, if the verb requires the auxiliary essere there is a further step to take. The past participle would have to agree in gender (masculine, feminine) and number  (singular, plural) with the subject of the sentence, just like an Italian adjective does (bello, bella, belli, belle).

Examples:
If the subject is masculine singular the past participle (andato) doesn’t change.
Paolo è andato in Italia. – Paolo went to Italy.

If the subject is feminine singular the past participle change the final -o into an -a (andata).
Maria è andata in Italia. – Maria went to Italy.

If the subject is masculine plural the past participle will end with an -i (andati).
Paolo e Marco sono andati in Italia. – Paolo e Marco  went to Italy.

If the subject is feminine plural the final letter of the past participle will be -e (andate).
Maria e Agata sono andate in Italia. – Maria e Agata went to Italy.

NOTE: The past participle never changes when using the auxiliary avere, unless there is a direct object pronoun before the verb.

Examples:

Laura ha mangiato la torta. – Laura ate the cake.
Laura l’ha mangiata. – Laura ate it.

In the first example even if the subject is feminine you don’t have to change the past participle.

But if we use a direct object pronoun (l’) instead of la torta, like in the second example, the past participle would have to agree in gender and number with the object (la torta), which, in this case, is singular feminine.

Irregular Past Participles in Italian

In Italian, like in English, there are a lot of irregular past participles. This means that these past participles don’t follow the rule that we just saw to make the participio passato. In that case you can only memorize them and try to use them as much as you can until you will remember them. 

Here I listed the irregular past participles of the most common Italian verbs with examples:

How to know if you have to use essere or avere?

That is a very good question and there is not a simple answer to it.  Below I tried to make it as clear as possible for you.

Participio passato with avere

Most Italian verbs use the auxiliary verb avere in the participio passato.

You can be sure to use avere with:

• Transitive verbs: verbs that can have an object.
  For example the verb to eat (mangiare) or to meet (incontrare) are transitive both in English and Italian because they have an object that answers to the questions what? or who?. You can eat something or meet someone.Examples:Ho mangiato la pizza ieri.
  I ate pizza yesterday.

  Ho incontrato Michele la settimana scorsa.
  I met Michele last week.

  Ho comprato la borsa.
  I bought the bag.

  Ho guardato un bel film sabato sera.
  I watched a good movie last Saturday night.

• Some intransitive verbs: verbs with no object.  It is not always clear when it is necessary to use essere or avere with intransitive verbs. The following are the most used intransitive verbs that require avere:
  ambire – to aspire, to aim
  approfittare di  – to take advantage of
  badare a – to look after
  bisticciare con – to bicker
  camminare – to walk
  cenare – to have dinner
  chiacchierare – to chat, to talk
  esitare – to hesitate
  litigare con – to fight, to argue
  mentire a – to lie to
  nuotare – to swim
  parlare – to talk, to speak
  pattinare – to skate
  reagire – to react
  ridere – to laugh
  rinunciare a – to renounce, to give up
  scherzare – to joke
  sciare – to ski
  smettere di – to stop, to quit
  telefonare – to call, to phone
  tossire – to cough
  viaggiare – to travel

When to use passato prossimo with essere

Essere is the auxiliary of the following intransitive verbs:

• Most of verbs that indicate movement like:
  andare – to go
  arrivare – to arrive
  entrare – to enter, to come in
  partire – to leave
  tornare, ritornare – to come back
  uscire – to go out, to exit
  venire – to come
• Stative verbs (verbs that indicate inactivity) like:
  stare – to stay, to be located
  restare – to stay
  rimanere – to remain
  esistere – to exist
  essere – to be
  vivere – to live
  sopravvivere – to survive
  succedere – to happen
• Verbs indicating changes in the state of being, such as:
  cambiare – to change
  crescere – to grow
  diventare – to become
  migliorare – to improve, to get better
  morire – to die
  nascere – to be born
• Reflexive verbs (verbs ending in -si in the infinitive form), like the following very common verbs:
  addormentarsi – to fall asleep
  alzarsi – to get up
  annoiarsi – to get bored
  arrabbiarsi – to get angry
  divertirsi – to have fun, to enjoy oneself
  farsi male – to get hurt, hurt oneself
  innamorarsi di – to fall in love with
  lamentarsi – to complain
  lavarsi – to wash oneself
  laurearsi – to graduate
  mettersi – to put clothes on
  muoversi – to move
  sedersi – to sit down
  sentirsi – to feel
  spogliarsi – to undress
  sposarsi –  to get married
  svegliarsi – to wake up
  trasferirsi – to move
  vestirsi – to get dressed

Quick overview of Passato Prossimo

Conclusion

Now you can finally say in Italian what you did yesterday or sometime in the past!

Remember to change the final endings when using essere.

As we saw, the choice of the auxiliary is not always as clear for intransitive verbs. Certain verbs can even allow both essere and avere depending on the context, but I don’t want to scare you too much at this point! If you are interested in learning more on the topic check out this more detailed list: la scelta del verbo ausiliare.

If you want to check if the past participle is irregular or you want to be sure to use the right auxiliary I suggest to consult a verb conjugator online, such as .  With Reverso you can insert the infinitive form of the verb and then look for the conjugation of passato prossimo along with all the other Italian tenses.