This tense expresses an action that has ended at the time of speech, has passed and is not connected with the present. The main question that this time answers is “What did you do?”

This tense is classified as complex, since its formation requires an auxiliary verb. In this case, these are the verbs avere or essere.

Also, to form the nearest past tense, you need to use Participio passato of the semantic verb.

Thus, when constructing a sentence, the auxiliary verb comes first, namely its form in Presente + Participio passato is already the semantic verb.

Participio passato

Participio passato is the past participle of a verb, which is formed by adding endings to the stem of the verb. For the first conjugation the ending is -ato, for the second - uto, and for the third -ito.

Eg: Roberto ha lavorato tutto il mese senza festivi per guadagnare i soldi e comprare il Macbook.- Roberto worked for a whole month without days off to earn money and buy a MacBook.

Maria non ha potuto venire ieri perche ha dovuto di lavorare. - Maria couldn't come yesterday because she had to work.

Hai già finito di pranzare? -Have you already had lunch?

But as always in Italian there are exception verbs. Such verbs form the past participle according to their own rules. The participle forms of such irregular verbs need to be remembered: fare-fatto, dire-detto, aprire-aperto, vedere-visto, perdere-perso, essere-stato, etc.

Mi hanno detto che ristorante "Arcobaleno" è molto buono. - I was told that the Arcobaleno restaurant is very good.

Also very important is the use of the auxiliary verbs avere and essere.

The following are conjugated with the auxiliary verb avere:

1. Transitive verbs (such as fare, leggere, vedere): Ho fatto tutto per andare in vacanza a Taormina.- I did everything to go on holiday to Taormina.
2. With some intransitive verbs (rispondere, viaggiare and those that denote psychophysical states of a person - dormire): Ho dormito male stanotte e non voglio fare niente oggi. - I didn't sleep well last night and that's why I don't want to do anything today: Per raggiungere Eggitto ho viaggiato con l"aereo . - To get to Egypt, I traveled by plane.
3. The verb avere itself: Ieri ho avuto molto da fare, ma ho fatto tutto in tempo e sono andato in bar con la mia amica.- Yesterday I had a lot to do, but I did everything on time and went to the bar with my friend.

With the auxiliary verb essere:

1. Verbs expressing movement (andare, uscire, venire): Io con mia sorella siamo andatial cinema per vedere il film "Sei mai stata sulla Luna?".- My sister and I went to the cinema and watched the film “Have You Been to the Moon?”
2. Reflexive verbs: Mi sono svegliatoe mi ricordavo il mio bel sogno. - I woke up and remembered my wonderful dream.
3. Verb "piacere": Ci sono piaciute le montagne di Alpi. - We liked the Alps.

It is also worth remembering that the verb essere agrees in number, so the ending of the semantic verb changes. Daniele e Roberto sono venuti a casa tardi. - Daniel and Roberto returned home late.

Verbs in the Italian language are characterized by the indispensable presence of such an important grammatical category as tense, reflecting the relationship of actions (or states) with the real time of their commission, both in relation to directly informing interlocutors about their actual implementation (the moment of speech - absolute time), and in relation to another action or another time period (relative time).

Similar lessons on verbs:

At the same time, the language structures a very complex, branched and interconnected structure of various tense forms. Thus, the corresponding verbal tense word forms (present - the action occurs in the present time period, past - the action occurred in the past time period - and future - the action will only be realized in the future time period) are in the indicative (Indicativo (leggere (stentato) - read with difficulty - one f-ma present (Presente - noi leggiamo (stentato)), five - past (Imperfetto - noi leggevamo (stentato), Passato prossimo - noi abbiamo letto (stentato), Passato remoto - noi leggemmo (stentato), Trapassato prossimo - noi avevamo letto (stentato) and Trapassato remoto - noi avemmo letto (stentato)) and two - future (Futuro semplice - noi leggeremo (stentato), Futuro anteriore - noi avremo letto (stentato )), imperative (Imperativo - leggere (stentato) - read with difficulty - one form of the present (Presente - leggiamo (stentato)), conditional (Condizionale - leggere (stentato) - read with difficulty - one form of the present (Presente - noi leggeremmo (stentato)) and one - past (Passato - noi avremmo letto (stentato)) and subjunctive (Congiuntivo - one form of the present (Presente - che noi leggiamo (stentato)), and three forms of the past (Imperfetto - che noi leggessimo (stentato), Passato - che noi abbiamo letto (stentato) and Trapassato - che noi avessimo letto (stentato)) moods.

Moreover, these word forms can vary depending on the method of their inflection, breaking down into simple ones (through one base verb through the addition of indicative inflections to its infinitive stem - bere (sopra un dolore) - drown (sorrow in wine) - tu bev+i ( Presente indicativo) (sopra un dolore) - tu bev+evi (Imperfetto indicativo) (sopra un dolore) - che tu bev+a (Congiuntivo Presente) (sopra un dolore), etc.) and compound (based on two related verbal units - auxiliary (avere, essere) and basic - bere (sopra un dolore) - drown (sorrow in wine) - io + ho (auxiliary avere) + (past clause of the main) bevuto (Passato prossimo) (sopra un dolore) - io + avrei (aux. avere) + (past part. main) bevuto (Passato condizionale) (sopra un dolore), etc.) elements.

In general, we can consider about fifteen basic tense forms within the framework of four Italian moods, characterized by the peculiarities of their speech application and structural construction of forms. The most obvious way to reveal the above-mentioned features is the tabular method, which we will use below.

table of tenses of Italian verbs - features of use in speech

This tense denotes the nearest past completed action. Passato prossimo is a complex tense, it is formed using the auxiliary verb avere or essere in the present tense and the past participle of the conjugated verb.

The past participle (participio passato) is formed: for verbs of the first conjugation by dropping the ending -are and adding the ending -ato to the stem, for verbs of the second and third conjugations by dropping the endings -ere and -ire and adding the endings -uto and -ito to the stem respectively:

Past participle of some non-standard verbs:

fare-fatto
dire -detto
venire-venuto
leggere - letto
scriver - scritto
prendere-preso
vedere-visto
perdere - perso
essere-stato

As mentioned above, participio passato alone will not be enough to form the past tense. Although we already have the participle, let's see how it can be used separately:

La borsa persa - the lost bag

La lettera scritta - a written letter
Le parole dette - spoken words
I compiti finiti - completed tasks

That is, this is nothing more than an analogue of the sacrament in the Russian language. Now let’s take this very participle and add an auxiliary verb to it (which one - avere or essere - will be discussed a little later), while we look at the examples:

Butfattoilmiolavoro. - I did my job;
Onlettoquestolibro. - He read this book;
AbbiamovisitatoFirenze. - We visited Florence.
Arturo ha mangiato troppo. - Arthur ate too much.

As you can see, the form of the auxiliary verb indicates the one who performed the action; the use of a personal pronoun, as in other tenses, is completely useless. Most verbs form passato prossimo with the auxiliary verb avere. The auxiliary verb essere is used in the following situations:
1) When forming passato prossimo of the verb essere itself.
Due giorni fa sono stato a Roma - two days ago I was in Rome. 2) When forming passato prossimo of most verbs of motion (entrare, uscire, arrivare, partire, andare, venire, tornare, etc) Ieri Arturo è andato a mangiare - Yesterday Arthur went to eat.
Bruno andato dalla nonna. - Bruno went to his grandmother
Loro sono partiti per Firenze. - They left for Florence 3) passato prossimo of verbs of state and change of state (stare, morire, nascere, diventare, dimagrire, ingrassare). Filippo e` nato nel 1978. - Filippo was born in 1978. Dopo due anni e` diventata un`attrice famosa. - Two years later she became a famous actress. Maria e` ingrassata molto. - Maria has gained a lot of weight. Ieri e` morto il suo cane. - His dog died yesterday. 4) All reflexive verbs form passato prossimo with the auxiliary verb essere: Mi sono alzata alle 7 - I got up at 7 Marco si e` vestito velocemente - Marco quickly got dressed.
From the examples given, note that the past participle of verbs conjugated with essere agrees in gender and number with the subject:

Lina è andatA a lavorare.
Il padre è arrivato da Napoli.

I miei genitori sono partitI ieri sera.

Claudia e Lucia non sono ancora tornatE.

Nearest past tense(Passato Prossimo) in Italian expresses a completed action in the immediate past in relation to the present moment of speech. This tense can denote either a single or repeated action, one way or another related to the present. The nearest past tense in Italian is complex, i.e. formed from one of the auxiliary verbs ( avere or essere) in the present tense and the participle of the conjugated verb in the past tense ( Participio Passato).

The past participle is formed as follows:

The endings of group I verbs are removed - are and the ending is added - ato : parlare - parlato,lavorare – lavorato

- verbs of group II have an ending – here is replaced by the ending - uto :

cadere – caduto, potere – potuto

Verbs of group III change endings – ire on – ito :

finire-finito, sentire – sentito

In addition to the above-described formation of past participles, there are participles in Italian that have a special form. Here are the most common ones:

It should be noted that there are verbs that have 2 forms of past participles: perdere(lose, lose) – perso/perduto, vedere(see) - visto/veduto(the second form is used less and less often).

Auxiliary verb Essere

When forming the nearest past tense in Italian, the auxiliary verb essere

1. With intransitive verbs, which include:

Verbs of movement ( i verbi di movemento): venire,tornare,andare,partire,entrare,uscire,scendere,cadere and others;

Sono andato al cinema- I went to the cinema

Dopo pochi giorni lei è tornata a Kiev- a few days later she returned to Kyiv

Note: some verbs of motion are exceptions ( viaggiare, camminare, nuotare, ballare, passeggiare, guide etc.)

Verbs of location ( i verbi di stato): essere, stare, rimanere:

Domenica and rimasta a casa– on Sunday she stayed at home

Verbs of change of state ( i verbi di cambiamento): nascere, morire: è nato nel 1989a Kiev– he was born in 1989 in Kyiv

1. With impersonal verbs (piacere, piovere and etc.):

La Sicilia vi è piaciuta? – Did you like Sicily?

Note: in colloquial speech, verbs that denote weather phenomena can be conjugated with the verb avere

1. With reflexive verbs (i verbi riflessivi): salutarsi, conoscersi, lavarsi, vestirsi: ti sei lavato le mani– did you wash your hands?

1. With modal verbs as part of a nominal predicate (if the semantic verb is not transitive):

Non sono potuto venire- I could not come

In cases of formation of the nearest past tense in Italian with modal verbs only they are conjugated, and the semantic verb remains in the infinitive.

1. With some other verbs (bastare, serve, durare, costare and etc.): il film è durato quasi tre ore– the film lasted almost 3 hours

In cases where an auxiliary verb is used essere, the participle of the conjugated verb agrees in gender and number with the subject:

Io sono partito di buonora- I left early in the morning

Noi siamo arrivati ​​a Kiev a tempo– we arrived in Kyiv on time

If the participle of the conjugated verb refers to several nouns of different genders, then it is put in the masculine plural form: Maria e Giovanni sono usciti– Maria and Giovanni came out

Auxiliary verb Avere

As an auxiliary verb in the formation of the nearest past tense in Italian verb avere used in the following cases:

1. With all transitive verbs (i verbi transetivi), i.e. with verbs that have a direct object (when the action of the verb extends to any object): io ho scritto una lettera- I wrote a letter. In Russian, transitive verbs correspond to the accusative case with questions whom? What?(written by What? letter).

1. With some intransitive verbs , denoting a physical or mental state or feeling: Ho dormito bene- I slept well

1. With some verbs of movement that have no destination or final destination: camminare, nuotare, ballare, passeggiare, viaggiare, guide: abbiamo camminato per ore- we wandered for hours

It should be noted that, despite fewer rules of use, in most cases the auxiliary verb is used to form the nearest past tense in Italian avere.

Avere or Essere

There are verbs that can be used as an auxiliary verb to form the nearest past tense in Italian. avere, so essere.

1. First of all, this applies to verbs, which can be either transitive or intransitive depending on the cases of use:

Loro sono corso a casa- they run home

Lui ha corso tutti i negozia Kiev– he ran around all the shops in Kyiv (in this case the verb corso becomes transitional, since its effect extends to stores)

2. The next case of using a service verb avere or essere depending on the situation, these are weather phenomena. If we are simply talking about the fact of some weather phenomenon or its duration, then it is used avere:

ieri ha piovuto– it rained yesterday (just the fact that it rained)

ha piovuto tutto il giorno– it rained all day (the duration of the weather phenomenon is indicated)

è piovuto a dirotto e tutte le strade sono bagnate– there was heavy rain and all the roads became wet (indicates the result of the rain)

To date near past tense in Italian has become the most common tense among all past tenses and is used in colloquial, formal and literary Italian speech. Based on this, it is necessary to choose the right service verb for its formation, depending on the type of verb and the situation of its use.