Introduction to Passato Prossimo
One of the most challenging parts of starting to learn a language is being patient.
If you're like me, you're eager to start forming more and more complex sentences in the language you're learning. However, this can become problematic if you haven't learned the foundational concepts of that language.
When you do that, you're just making English sentences with Italian words subbed in. That's totally fine — but over time, this can cause you to develop bad habits that you need to work through later.
So, I've been careful with how I've practiced sentences so far, and now I'm super excited to start learning passato prossimo!
This blog will cover some of the basics with passato prossimo.
What is passato prossimo?
Passato Prossimo is one of the most commonly used past tenses in Italian, similar to how we use the English past simple tense (e.g., "I ate," "I visited"). It is used to talk about actions or events that happened at a specific time in the past and have been completed.
How to form the passato prossimo
I really like the passato prossimo, because it seems to work very similar to the Perfekt tense in German.
Passato Prossimo is a compound tense, which means it is made up of two parts:
- An auxiliary verb (either "avere" or "essere" in the present tense)
- A past participle of the main verb.
Auxiliary verbs: When to use "essere" vs "avere"
- "Avere" (to have) is used with most verbs, especially transitive verbs, which are those that take a direct object.
- "Essere" (to be) is used with intransitive verbs (those that don't take a direct object), and most motion verbs (e.g., "andare" - to go, "venire" - to come), and reflexive verbs.
How to form past participles
Forming the past participle depends on the verb's conjugation group. Italian verbs are classified into three groups based on their infinitive endings: -are, -ere, and -ire. Here's how you form the past participle for each group:
1. Verbs ending in -are
To form the past participle of these verbs, replace -are with -ato.
- Mangiare (to eat) → mangiato (eaten)
- Parlare (to speak) → parlato (spoken)
2. Verbs ending in -ere
For these verbs, replace -ere with -uto.
- Vedere (to see) → visto or veduto (seen)
- Scrivere (to write) → scritto (written) (Note: some -ere verbs are irregular like scrivere)
3. Verbs ending in -ire
To form the past participle of these verbs, replace -ire with -ito.
- Dormire (to sleep) → dormito (slept)
- Finire (to finish) → finito (finished)
Irregular Verbs
Of course, some verbs do not follow the regular pattern and have irregular past participles.
For example:
- Essere (to be) → stato (been)
- Fare (to do/make) → fatto (done/made)
- Dire (to say) → detto (said)
For these, you'll just have to memorize their past participles.
Putting it all together
When using essere, the past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject:
- Masculine singular: andato
- Feminine singular: andata
- Masculine plural: andati
- Feminine plural: andate
With "avere" (to have)
- Ho mangiato. (I ate.)
- Hai parlato. (You spoke.)
- Abbiamo finito. (We finished.)
With "essere" (to be)
- Sono andato. (I went. - masculine form)
- Sei tornata. (You returned. - feminine form)
- Siamo arrivati. (We arrived. - masculine plural)
Examples of Passato Prossimo:
- Ho comprato una macchina. (I bought a car.)
- Sei uscita ieri sera. (You went out last night. - feminine)
- Abbiamo visitato Roma. (We visited Rome.)
This is just scratching the surface, so as I learn more, I'll have more to blog about passato prossimo and the other tenses.