Passato Prossimo with Avere

The passato prossimo is the most widely used past tense in spoken Italian. It describes completed actions in the past — things that happened, events that took place, and actions that are now finished. In everyday conversation, Italians reach for the passato prossimo far more often than any other past tense.

The passato prossimo is a compound tense: it is formed with two parts — an auxiliary verb (either avere or essere in the present tense) plus a past participle. In this lesson, we focus on verbs that use avere as their auxiliary.

How to Form the Passato Prossimo with Avere

The formula is:

subject + present tense of avere + past participle

Present Tense of Avere

Person	Avere
io	ho
tu	hai
lui / lei / Lei	ha
noi	abbiamo
voi	avete
loro	hanno

Regular Past Participles

To form the past participle of a regular verb, remove the infinitive ending and add the appropriate suffix:

Verb group	Infinitive ending	Past participle ending	Example
1st conjugation	-are	-ato	parlare → parlato
2nd conjugation	-ere	-uto	credere → creduto
3rd conjugation	-ire	-ito	dormire → dormito

Key point: With avere, the past participle does not change for gender or number. It stays the same regardless of who is speaking: Ho parlato (I spoke), Lei ha parlato (She spoke), Loro hanno parlato (They spoke).

Full Conjugation Tables

Parlare (to speak) — 1st conjugation

Person	Conjugation	Translation
io	ho parlato	I spoke / I have spoken
tu	hai parlato	you spoke
lui / lei / Lei	ha parlato	he/she spoke / you (formal) spoke
noi	abbiamo parlato	we spoke
voi	avete parlato	you all spoke
loro	hanno parlato	they spoke

Credere (to believe) — 2nd conjugation

Person	Conjugation	Translation
io	ho creduto	I believed
tu	hai creduto	you believed
lui / lei / Lei	ha creduto	he/she believed
noi	abbiamo creduto	we believed
voi	avete creduto	you all believed
loro	hanno creduto	they believed

Dormire (to sleep) — 3rd conjugation

Person	Conjugation	Translation
io	ho dormito	I slept
tu	hai dormito	you slept
lui / lei / Lei	ha dormito	he/she slept
noi	abbiamo dormito	we slept
voi	avete dormito	you all slept
loro	hanno dormito	they slept

Common Regular Verbs with Avere

1st conjugation (-are → -ato)

Infinitive	Meaning	Past participle
parlare	to speak	parlato
mangiare	to eat	mangiato
comprare	to buy	comprato
lavorare	to work	lavorato
studiare	to study	studiato
cucinare	to cook	cucinato
guardare	to watch / to look at	guardato
chiamare	to call	chiamato
ascoltare	to listen to	ascoltato
pagare	to pay	pagato
giocare	to play	giocato
cantare	to sing	cantato
cercare	to look for	cercato
trovare	to find	trovato
pensare	to think	pensato

2nd conjugation (-ere → -uto)

Infinitive	Meaning	Past participle
credere	to believe	creduto
vendere	to sell	venduto
ricevere	to receive	ricevuto
temere	to fear	temuto
potere	to be able to	potuto
sapere	to know	saputo
avere	to have	avuto

3rd conjugation (-ire → -ito)

Infinitive	Meaning	Past participle
dormire	to sleep	dormito
capire	to understand	capito
finire	to finish	finito
preferire	to prefer	preferito
sentire	to hear / to feel	sentito
pulire	to clean	pulito
spedire	to send	spedito
costruire	to build	costruito

Which Verbs Use Avere?

Most transitive verbs — verbs that take a direct object — use avere:

Ho mangiato una pizza. (I ate a pizza.)
Hai comprato un libro? (Did you buy a book?)
Abbiamo guardato un film. (We watched a film.)

Rule of thumb: If you can ask "What?" or "Whom?" after the verb, it is probably transitive and takes avere.

Some intransitive verbs also use avere, particularly those expressing:

Actions that do not involve movement or change of state: dormire, lavorare, parlare, piangere
Duration without displacement: viaggiare (to travel), camminare (to walk) — though these can vary by region

Time Markers for the Passato Prossimo

These words and phrases signal that the passato prossimo is the right tense:

Italian	English
ieri	yesterday
ieri sera	last night / yesterday evening
l'altro ieri	the day before yesterday
la settimana scorsa	last week
il mese scorso	last month
l'anno scorso	last year
due giorni fa	two days ago
stamattina	this morning
poco fa	a short while ago
già	already
appena	just (recently)

Practice Sentences

Ho studiato italiano per due ore. — I studied Italian for two hours.
Maria ha cucinato una cena deliziosa. — Maria cooked a delicious dinner.
Avete comprato i biglietti? — Did you (all) buy the tickets?
I bambini hanno mangiato tutta la torta. — The children ate the whole cake.
Ieri ho lavorato fino a tardi. — Yesterday I worked until late.
Hai chiamato il dottore? — Did you call the doctor?
Abbiamo ascoltato una canzone bellissima. — We listened to a beautiful song.
Lui ha pagato il conto. — He paid the bill.
Non ho capito la domanda. — I did not understand the question.
Hanno finito il progetto stamattina. — They finished the project this morning.

A Note on Double Meanings

The passato prossimo can translate as either the English simple past or the present perfect:

Ho parlato = I spoke or I have spoken
Ha mangiato = He ate or He has eaten

Context determines which English translation is most natural. In modern spoken Italian, the passato prossimo often replaces the more literary passato remoto, even for events in the distant past — especially in northern and central Italy.

Negative Sentences

To make the passato prossimo negative, place non before the auxiliary verb:

Non ho dormito bene. — I did not sleep well.
Non hanno capito. — They did not understand.
Non abbiamo mangiato niente. — We did not eat anything.

Questions

To form questions, you can simply use rising intonation (as in English) or invert the subject:

Hai mangiato? — Did you eat? / Have you eaten?
Ha lavorato Maria oggi? — Did Maria work today?
Avete finito? — Have you (all) finished?

Summary

The passato prossimo with avere is formed with: present tense of avere + past participle.
Regular past participles: -are → -ato, -ere → -uto, -ire → -ito.
With avere, the past participle does not agree in gender or number (with one exception we will cover in Lesson 4).
Most transitive verbs (verbs that take a direct object) use avere.
Time markers like ieri, la settimana scorsa, and stamattina signal this tense.

In the next lesson, we will learn about the passato prossimo with essere — where the rules for agreement change.