The Passato Prossimo

Weilà raga! Hope all you guys are doing well today!

In this post we'll be going over the Italian Passato Prossimo - which is the equivalent of the English Present Perfect Tense. Simply put, its when you want to say "I have eaten" - in the phrase we have a Pronoun, a Helping Verb, followed by a Main Verb in the Past Tense. Its also when you're talking about something that has happened in the recent past and it has an effect on the present.

Also note that this verb tense is also used to say things in the Simple Past. In other words, HO MANGIATO means I HAVE EATEN and also I ATE.

All Italian verbs have 1 of 3 verb endings: ARE, ERE, and IRE. Depending on what verb ending a verb has will determine how it gets conjugated.

All ARE verbs in the Passato Prossimo will no longer end in ARE but ATO. So, for example, MANGIARE, an ARE Verb which means TO EAT, will become, MANGIATO. You're just substituting ATO for ARE. Then, all you need is your optional pronoun followed by the correlating conjugated form of MANGIARE's Helping Verb AVERE in the Present Tense.

Here's how you conjugate AVERE (to have) in the present tense. Its an irregular verb so all of its conjugated forms don't follow a clean-cut pattern. With irregular verbs, its all about memorization.

Avere - to have

io - ho             (I have)

tu - hai            (you have)

lui/lei - ha        (he/she has)

noi - abbiamo   (we have)

voi - avete       (you al have)

loro - hanno     (they have)

Italians typically when talking about written Italian will refer to LUI/LEI as EGLI/ELLA, but no one actually speaks EGLI & ELLA, LUI & LEI are the spoken pronouns.

Same thing goes for ESSI and LORO. In written Italian, the Italians use ESSI for THEY and in spoken Italian they'll use LORO.

So if I want to say I HAVE EATEN, I need to say IO HO MANGIATO. In this phrase we have IO the pronoun that means I, HO which is the IO conjugated form of AVERE in the Present Tense, followed by out main verb MANGIARE in its Passato Prossimo form, MANGIATO. Therefore we have: IO HO MANGIATO, I HAVE EATEN - its a literal translation.

So, all together its:

io ho mangiato (i have eaten)

tu hai mangiato (you have eaten)

lui/lei ha mangiato (he/she has eaten)

noi abbiamo mangiato (we have eaten)

voi avete mangiato (you all have eaten)

loro hanno mangiato (they have eaten)

All ERE verbs will change to UTO in the Passato Prossimo.

So for VENDERE which means TO SELL, it will become VENDUTO. All we need to do, the only hard part, is remembering the conjugations of AVERE in the present tense, for that's the only thing that changes when we're talking about different subjects.

Vendere - to sell

io ho venduto (I have sold)

tu hai venduto (you have sold)

lui/lei ha venduto (he/she has sold)

noi abbiamo venduto (we have sold)

voi avete venduto (you all have sold)

loro hanno venduto (they have sold)

IRE verbs change to ITO. So DORMIRE (to sleep) will become DORMITO:

Dormire - to sleep

io ho dormito (I have slept)

tu hai dormito (you have slept)

lui/lei ha dormito (he/she has slept)

noi abbiamo dormito (we have slept)

voi avete dormito (you all have slept)

loro hanno dormito (they have slept)

For INTRANSITIVE VERBS, otherwise known commonly known as WALKING VERBS, they all use ESSERE (to be) as they're helping verb. And whenever you have ESSERE in a phrase, you must be mindful of Gender and Plurality.

So, for IO, TU, and LUI/LEI conjugations, if you are a boy or are talking about a boy - the main verb will end still in O. If you are a girl or are talking about a girl - the main verb will end in A.

For NOI, VOI, and, LORO conjugations, if you are talking either about a group of boys or a group of boys and girls - the main verb will end in I. If you are talking about a group of only girls - the main verb will end in E.

So, for ANDARE (to go) which becomes ANDATO in the Passato Prossimo, here's how it gets conjugated:

Andare - to go

io sono andato/a (I have gone m/f)  --- M/F stands for Masculine/Feminine

tu sei andato/a (you have gone m/f)

lui/lei è andato/a (he/she has gone) --- lui can only work with andato and lei can only work with andata.

noi siamo andati/e (we have gone m/f)

voi siete andati/e (you all have gone m/f)

loro sono andati/e (they have gone m/f)

And that's it! Hope this helps and best of luck to you!! :)

Here's the video that correlates to this post:

Always remember to SPREAD THE LOVE!

Tom