Page 29 - verbo italiano

Verb Usage Review / 19

PRESENT PERFECT

The corresponding compound tense of the present tense is the passato prossimo,
or present perfect, a tense expressing an action or state of being that occurred at a
particular time in the past. The present perfect is equivalent to either the present
perfect (“I have worked”) or the simple past (“I worked”) in English:
Ho pagato il conto. I paid the bill/I have paid the bill.

Prepositions such as per (“for”), in (“in”), or precise times or dates, which specify
the temporal limits or completeness of a past event, indicate that passato prossimo
is needed:

Ho studiato per cinque ore. I studied for five hours.
Sono nata nel 1966. I was born in 1966.

The following words and expressions often require the use of passato prossimo:
• Scorso (“last”), l’anno scorso (“last year”), il mese scorso (“last month”), and
so on
• Ieri (“yesterday”), ieri sera (“last night”), l’altro ieri (“the day before
yesterday”), and so on
• Da . . . a (“from . . . to”)
• Fino a (“until”)
• Tutto il giorno (“all day long”)
• Alla fine (“finally”)
• Poi (“then”)
• Una volta (“one time”)
• Fa (“ago”; for example, due giorni fa, “two days ago”)
See page 52 for the use of present perfect with the verbs volere, dovere, and potere.

The present perfect, passato prossimo, is a compound tense that consists of two
parts:
• The present tense of an auxiliary (“helping”) verb, either avere (ho, hai, ha,
abbiamo, avete, hanno) or essere (sono, sei, è, siamo, siete, sono).
• The past participle of the verb you want in the past.

Note that in English, only the auxiliary verb “have” may be used to form the com-
pound tenses. See the Italian past participle section for an explanation on forming
the Italian past participle, and see the “Avere or Essere?” section for an explanation
of when to use essere or avere as auxiliary verbs. The chart below shows examples
of the formation of the present perfect. The helping verbs avere and essere are in
the present tense. The past participle of the verbs lavorare, ricevere, dormire, and
arrivare are given. The past participle agrees with the subject in number and gen-
der when the verb is conjugated with essere.