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Verb Usage Review / 13

Verb Past Participle
dire (“to say”) detto (“said”)
leggere (“to read”) letto (“read”)
mettere (“to put”) messo (“put”)
perdere (“to lose”) perso (“lost”)
prendere (“to take”) preso (“took”)
scegliere (“to choose”) scelto (“chosen”)
vincere (“to win”) vinto (“won”)

Note the following on the irregular past participles:
• Many verbs ending in –dere and –ndere have a past participle ending in –so
(for example, prendere and preso; chiudere and chiuso).
• Some verbs ending in –ncere and –ngere have a past participle ending in –nto
(for example, vincere and vinto; spingere and spinto).
• Some verbs ending in –gliere have a past participle ending in –lto (for
example, scegliere and scelto; cogliere and colto).

AVERE OR ESSERE?

In order to form compound tenses in English, the auxiliary (“helping”) verb “to
have” (“you have studied,” “I have gone”) is always used. In Italian, compound
tenses may be formed with either avere or essere as an auxiliary verb. When select-
ing the correct auxiliary (“helping”) verb, keep the following in mind:
• The overwhelming majority of Italian verbs form the compound tenses with
the helping verb avere. Avere is used with all transitive active verbs (those
that can be followed by a direct object).
• All reflexive verbs (those with an infinitive ending in –si) always use essere as
their helping verb—for example, Mi sono svegliato presto (“I woke up early”).
See “The Reflexive Form.”
• The most common intransitive verbs (those that do not take a direct object)
use essere as their helping verb. These verbs generally show motion or
change of place, state, or condition and include those shown in Table 3.
• Verbs denoting atmospheric conditions, and some intransive verbs, may be
conjugated with essere or avere (ha piovuto/è piovuto, “it rained”).
• Verbs that use an indirect pronoun construction, such as the verb piacere,
use essere as their helping verb—for example, Ti è piaciuto il film? (“Did you
like the movie?”). See “Piacere and Verbs with Special Construction.” Also
verbs used in impersonal construction, such as accadere (“to happen”) and
occorrere (“to need”), use essere to form compound tenses. See “Impersonal
Verbs and Expressions.”

Table 6 is a list of the most common intransitive verbs that form the compound
tenses with essere.