How to use Italian direct object pronouns with the present perfect tense

I already explained that when we form “passato prossimo” with the auxiliary verb “avere” the past participle never agrees with the subject pronouns (io, tu, lui, lei, noi, voi, loro). However, if we use a direct pronoun to replace a noun, we must agree the past participle with the pronoun.

To better understand this grammar rule, let's read this sentence.

• Barbara ha incontrato Annalisa ieri. = Barbara met Annalisa yesterday

In this sentence we don't change the past participle “incontrato”. But look now what happens if we replace the direct object “Annalisa” with the pronoun LA (her).

• Barbara l'ha incontrata ieri. = Barbara met her yesterday

As you can understand from the example, the past participle must agree with the pronoun LA. So we need to put it in the feminine form by changing the last vowel -o with -a.

Let's see another example.

• Abbiamo messo i pomodori in frigo. = We put the tomatoes in the fridge

In this sentence we don't need to agree the past participle “messo”. But if we replace the word “pomodori” with the direct pronoun LI, we have to change the past participle in the plural form.

• Li abbiamo messi in frigo. = We put them in the fridge