Italian present perfect tense

Italians use different tenses to talk about past events. Today we study “passato prossimo”, one of the most common Italian past tense.

Passato prossimo can be used to express:

-  an action happened in a recent past;

-  an action happened in a period of time that has not concluded yet;

-  an action occurred in the past that still has effects on the present.

Passato prossimo is a compound tense because it is formed by two verbs: the first one is the present tense of the auxiliary verb essere or avere, the second one the past participle (participio passato) that can be formed by replacing the final ending of the infinitive (-ARE, -ERE, -IRE) with: -ATO, -UTO and -ITO.

There are however some verbs that have an irregular past participle, but we will study them in another grammar lesson.

As you can understand, “passato prossimo” can be formed very easily. The only problem can be related to the auxiliary verb. When we use “avere” and when “essere”?

We use the auxiliary avere with the verbs that require a direct object (verbi transitivi). With these verbs we can make the question: chi? (who?) or che cosa? (what?)

Let's see now how to form passato prossimo with the auxiliary verb avere.

Remember that with avere the past participle is the same for all subjects, singular and plural.

Examples:

• Ho incontrato i miei amici. = I met my friends

• Abbiamo mangiato una pizza. = We ate a pizza

• Hanno invitato Paolo a cena. = They invited Paolo for dinner

The auxiliary essere, instead, must be used with:

- verbs that indicate a movement (andare = to go, venire = to come, tornare = to come back, arrivare = to arrive, partire = to leave, entrare = to come in, uscire = to go out, cadere = to fall down ...)

• Sono andata al cinema con mia sorella. = I went to the cinema with my sister

- verbs that translate the English verb “to stay” (stare, restare, rimanere...)

• Siete restati a casa ieri? = Did you stay at home yesterday?

- verbs that express a change (nascere = to be born, morire = to die, diventare = to become, ingrassare = to put on weight, dimagrire = to lose weight ...)

• Luisa è nata nel 1995. = Luisa was born in 1995

• Luigi è dimagrito di dieci chili in cinque mesi. = Luigi has lost ten kilos in five months

- reflexive verbs (you can revise them at this link)

• Oggi ci siamo svegliati presto. = Today we woke up early

• Come ti sei vestita al matrimonio di Alessandra? = How did you dress at Alessandra's wedding?

- impersonal verbs (piacere = to like, mancare = to miss, sembrare = to seem, bastare = to be enough, succedere = to happen ...)

• Mi sono mancati molto i miei genitori. = I missed my parents a lot

• Vi è piaciuto il film? = Did you like the movie?

When the present perfect needs the auxiliary essere, the past participle changes and agrees in gender and number with the subject.

Examples:

• La settimana scorsa sono andato a Venezia. = I went to Venice last week

• Io e i miei amici siamo andati a Roma. = My friends and I went to Rome

• Federica è andata a Parigi per lavoro. = Federica went to Paris for work

• Sabrina e sua figlia sono andate al mare. = Sabrina and her daughter went to the sea

Let's see now how to form passato prossimo with the auxiliary verb essere.

I hope the grammar rule I explained today is clear. But if you have any doubts, write me!