Il passato prossimo dei verbi regolari con avere(= present perfect in inglese)
Indicates an action that was completed in the past. It is an action that can be followed by another action in a sequence. The action advances a story line as recounted in the past tense.
(Later on we will learn another past tense, the imperfetto, that is for describing or for indicating continuous, background actions in the past.)
Like the English pres. perf., the passato prossimo consists of a helper verb (auxiliary) + past participle:
have + PPavere + PPinfinitoparticipio passato
I havetalkedhoparlato -are >- a to
they haveplayedhannogiocato
have you repeated?hairipetuto? -ere- u to
we havesoldabbiamovenduto
have you guys finished?avetefinito? -ire - i to
Laura hassentLaura haspedito
There are some irregular forms (esp. –ere verbs), but for now we will deal only with regular formations.
Note that the meaning is either as above, or more commonly the simple past tense in English.
I talked, they playeddid you guys repeat?
die you repeat?, we soldLaura sent
As in older English and still in many European languages, Italianalso uses essere as the helping verb. We will study this later. Essere is used when the verb indicates a change of position or state, and also for all reflexive verbs.
Ex. He is come to save us.Lui è venuto per salvarci.
Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, isrisen up, and hath rebelled against his lord. (2 Chronicles 13:6)
Geroboamo figlio di Nebàt, ministro di Salomone figlio di Davide, è sorto e si è ribellato contro il suo padrone.
Use the participio passato with avere to form the passato prossimo for these verbs:
studiare: noi______i verbi.
pulire:io______la casa ieri.
comprare:voiCosa ______al mercato?
cantare:LauraLaura ______una canzone messicana.
ballare:tuCon chi ______alla festa?
avere:noiNon ______freddo.
potere:tu______fare i tuoi compiti?
volere:io______sciare, ma non ho potuto.
giocare:voi______a schacchi ieri sera?
dormire:ioNon ______molto bene.
suggerire:tuChe cosa ______al professore?
guardare:noi______un buon film.
vendere:loro______la loro vecchia macchina.
ricevere:tuQuand ______la lettera dello zio Paolo?
sentire:io______parlare di questo libro.
spiegare:luiIl professore ______la grammatica.
capire:noiNon ______molto bene l’esercizio.