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Conjugating regular Italian verbs in the Passato Prossimo – “Present Perfect” The Passato Prossimo is most often used like what we would call the “Simple Past” or “Present Perfect”. It is formed by using either the verb essere or avere in the present tense followed by the past participle of the verb you want to use. For Example if you wanted to say “I ate” you would first conjugate avere in the present tense and then follow it with mangiato, the past participle for mangiare. With the subject pronoun included it would look like this;
Io ho mangiato (I ate or I have eaten)
Regular past participles are easy to form. You simple remove the infinitive ending and apply the past participle ending as shown below;
Verbs ending in ARE use ATO, for example; mangiare – are = mangi + ato = mangiato Verbs ending in ERE use UTO, for example; credere – ere = cred + uto = creduto Verbs ending in IRE use ITO, for example; finire – ire = fin + ito = finito
There are many verbs that use an irregular past participle. These you will need to commit to memory and many of these can be found on pages 54 & 55 of Italian Verb Drills by Paola Nanni-Tate I like to use math equations as an example but first here are the past participle endings for all regular verbs; Verbs ending in ARE -ato Verbs ending in ERE -uto Verbs ending in IRE – ito
To conjugate the regular ARE verbs in the passato prossimo = conjugated auxiliary verb + (infinitive verb – infinitive ending = verb stem + past participle ending) = conjugated verb. Example; Abbiamo (to have for we) + [Parlare (To Speak) – are = Parl + ato (past pariciple ending)] = Abbiamo Parlato (We spoke or we have spoken)
Parlare conjugated in the passato prossimo Io Tu Lui/Lei Noi Voi Loro Ho parlato Hai parlato Ha parlato Abbiamo parlato Avete parlato Hanno parlato I spoke or have spoken You spoke or have spoken He/She/It spoke or has spoken We spoke or have spoken Y’all spoke or have spoken They spoke or have spoken
To conjugate the regular ERE verbs in the passato prossimo = conjugated auxiliary verb + (infinitive verb – infinitive ending = verb stem + past participle ending) = conjugated verb. Example; Abbiamo (to have for we) + [Credere (To Believe) – ere = Cred + uto (past pariciple ending)] = Abbiamo Creduto (We believed or we have believed)
Credere conjugated in the passato prossimo Io Tu Lui/Lei Noi Voi Loro Ho creduto Hai creduto Ha creduto Abbiamo creduto Avete creduto Hanno creduto I believed or have believed You believed or have believed He/She/It believed or has believed We believed or have believed Y’all believed or have believed They believed or have believed
To conjugate the regular IRE verbs in thepassato prossimo = conjugated auxiliary verb + (infinitive verb – infinitive ending = verb stem + past participle ending) = conjugated verb. Example; Abbiamo (to have for we) + [Sentire (To Hear) – ire = Sent + ito (past pariciple ending)] = Abbiamo Sentito (We heard or we have heard)
Credere conjugated in the passato prossimo Io Tu Lui/Lei Noi Voi Loro Ho sentito Hai sentito Ha sentito Abbiamo sentito Avete sentito Hanno sentito I heard or have heard You heard or have heard He/She/It heard or has heard We heard or have heard Y’all heard or have heard They heard or have heard
Choosing the Avere or Essere (auxiliary verb) when using Passato Prossimo
You can find a list of common verbs conjugated with Essere in the Passato Prossimo It is important to note here than when you use a verb in the Passato Prossimo with the verb essere, the past participle must agree with the subject in gender and number. For example the verb andare or “to go”
Lui è andato (he went/has gone) or Lei è andata (she went/has gone) Gli uomini sono andanti (the men went/have gone) or Le donne sono andate (the women went/have gone)
As is always the case with gender when the plural subject is a mix of masculine and feminine you use the masculine. Andare conjugated in the passato prossimo Io Tu Lui/Lei Noi Voi Loro Sono andato or andata Sei andato or andata È andato or andata Siamo andati or andate Siete andati or andate Sono andati or andate I went or have gone You went or have gone He/She/It went or has gone We went or have gone You all went or have gone They went or have gone.
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