Passato prossimo

The everyday past tense: The passato prossimo is the tense Italians use for completed past actions — I ate, I went, I have done. It is a compound tense: you build it from two parts — the present of an auxiliary verb (avere to have or essere to be) plus the past participle of the main verb. Ho mangiato (I ate/have eaten), sono andato (I went/have gone). Master the two ingredients and you can put almost any verb into the past.

il passato prossimo

the compound past — for completed past actions (I ate, I went)

l'ausiliare (avere / essere)

the auxiliary — the present of avere or essere, the first ingredient

il participio passato

the past participle — the second ingredient (mangiato, andato, fatto)

-are → -ato

regular participle for -are verbs: parlare → parlato, mangiare → mangiato

-ere → -uto

regular participle for -ere verbs: vendere → venduto, credere → creduto

-ire → -ito

regular participle for -ire verbs: dormire → dormito, finire → finito

Why it carries the marks: The moment you narrate anything — a holiday, a weekend, a story — you need the passato prossimo, so it appears in almost every reading text, listening clip and written answer at SL. Choosing the right auxiliary and getting the participle right is core Criterion A (Language) accuracy — «ho andato» instead of «sono andato» is a mistake examiners spot at once.

Two auxiliaries, one participle: First form the participle: -are → -ato, -ere → -uto, -ire → -ito (parlare → parlato, credere → creduto, dormire → dormito). Then choose the auxiliary. Most verbs take avere and the participle never changes: ho parlato, hai parlato, abbiamo parlato. Verbs of movement or change of state (andare, venire, partire, tornare, arrivare, uscire, entrare, nascere, morire, restare) and all reflexives take essere — and then the participle agrees with the subject like an adjective: -o / -a / -i / -e.

Learn a few irregular participles: Some very common verbs have irregular participles you simply memorise: fare → fatto, dire → detto, leggere → letto, scrivere → scritto, prendere → preso, vedere → visto, aprire → aperto, essere → stato, rimanere → rimasto. And remember: with essere the participle ends in -o (a male «io/lui»), -a (a female), -i (a male/mixed plural), -e (an all-female plural) — «Maria è andata», «i ragazzi sono partiti».

For finished, completed actions: Use the passato prossimo for a single, completed action in the past — something that happened and finished. It is the natural tense for telling what you did: yesterday, last week, this morning, once. Italian uses one tense here for both English I ate and I have eaten: «Ieri ho mangiato la pizza» means both. (For background, repeated or ongoing past states — I used to…, it was… — Italian uses the imperfetto instead: that is the next micro.)

Passato prossimo vs imperfetto: A quick rule of thumb: the passato prossimo tells you what happened (a completed event: «È squillato il telefono»), while the imperfetto tells you what was going on / how things were (background: «Dormivo quando è squillato il telefono»). If you can answer «what did you do?» with it, it's almost always the passato prossimo.

A holiday told in the past: Here is a short holiday account built one sentence at a time. Watch the two auxiliaries at work: avere-verbs keep the participle unchanged (ho comprato, abbiamo visitato, ho mangiato), while essere-verbs make it agree with the subject (sono partita, siamo andate, è tornata). Read it once for meaning, then tap Mostra traduzione for the English or 🔊 to hear it.

Steal this for your narration: This is your blueprint for any «racconta cosa hai fatto» task. Choose high-frequency verbs, decide avere or essere for each, and — only for the essere ones — make the participle agree. String them together with time words (prima, poi, dopo, alla fine) and you have a whole narrative in the past.

The slips to watch for: Three mistakes dominate. 1. Using avere for an essere-verb («ho andato» instead of sono andato). 2. Forgetting the agreement after essere («Maria è andato» instead of è andata). 3. Wrongly making the participle agree with avere («Ho comprati i biglietti» — with avere the participle normally stays invariable: ho comprato). Compare the right version with the typical mistake and each fix becomes obvious.

Ask: avere or essere? and does it agree?: Before you write a passato prossimo, do two quick checks. 1. Is it a verb of movement/change of state (andare, venire, partire, tornare, uscire…) or a reflexive? If yes → essere; otherwise → avere. 2. If you chose essere, make the participle agree with the subject (-o/-a/-i/-e); if you chose avere, leave it -o and unchanged.