Irregular Present Perfect – Passato Prossimo: Italian Grammar Lesson

Italian Passato Prossimo

Irregular verbs in the passato prossimo are the ones whose past participle does not end in -ato, -uto or -ito: fare becomes fatto, dire becomes detto and scrivere becomes scritto. The auxiliary verb (avere or essere) works as usual, so the only thing you have to learn by heart is the participle.

You already know what passato prossimo is and how it is used: it is the most commonly used past tense in Italian, and it is a compound tense composed of:

1. The auxiliary verb (either avere or essere) conjugated in the present tense
2. The past participle of the main verb

Let me show you some examples in case you need to refresh your memory:

How to Conjugate the Past Participle?

Regular Past Participle

The participio passato of regular verbs is conjugated as follows:

• Verbs ending in -are take -ato (mangiare -> mangiato)
• Verbs ending in -ere take -uto (cadere -> caduto)
• Verbs ending in -ire take -ito (capire -> capito)

Irregular Past Participle

Many frequently used verbs in Italian, especially those ending in -ere, have an irregular past participle. This means that they do not follow the patterns of the table we saw above.

The only way for you to learn irregular forms correctly is to memorize them through constant use, but below, you can find a list of the 50 most common ones. Before you dive into this exhaustive list, let me explain something to you that I find relevant as a linguist.

There are two main types of long-term memory that comes into play when learning a language: procedural memory and declarative memory.

Procedural memory allows to automatically use language without having to think about every step. It makes using grammar correctly, pronouncing words right, and using phrases naturally much smoother.

Learn more about Italian verb conjugation.

Irregular Past Participle of Common Verbs

As promised, here I will show you the 50 most common Italian irregular past participles.

Three verbs in this list, arrostire, crescere and tenere, actually form their participle regularly (arrostito, cresciuto, tenuto). They follow the -ito and -uto patterns you saw above.

Patterns in Irregular Past Participles

The participles look random, but many follow a pattern. Learning them in groups is easier than learning them one by one, although there are exceptions:

• -dere / -ndere → -so: prendere → preso, spendere → speso, scendere → sceso, chiudere → chiuso, decidere → deciso, ridere → riso
• -ondere → -osto: rispondere → risposto, nascondere → nascosto
• -ettere → -esso: mettere → messo, permettere → permesso, promettere → promesso
• -ggere → -tto: leggere → letto, friggere → fritto, correggere → corretto
• -ngere → -nto: dipingere → dipinto, piangere → pianto, spingere → spinto, raggiungere → raggiunto
• -rire → -erto: aprire → aperto, coprire → coperto, offrire → offerto, soffrire → sofferto
• -durre → -dotto: produrre → prodotto, tradurre → tradotto, ridurre → ridotto

A few more common ones do not fit any group: rimanere → rimasto (to stay), porre → posto (to put), sorridere → sorriso (to smile), discutere → discusso (to discuss) and convincere → convinto (to convince).

Irregular Passato Prossimo in Sentences

Irregular Participles With Essere

Some of the most irregular participles belong to verbs that take essere: essere → stato, nascere → nato, morire → morto, venire → venuto, succedere → successo and rimanere → rimasto. With them, the participle agrees with the subject in gender and number.

Modal Verbs in the Passato Prossimo

The modal verbs have regular participles: dovere → dovuto, potere → potuto, volere → voluto and sapere → saputo. They usually take avere, but with a verb that takes essere you can also use essere.

Both sentences are correct. The choice of auxiliary is explained in the lesson on the passato prossimo of volere, potere, dovere and sapere.

Agreement With Direct Object Pronouns

With avere the participle normally stays the same, but it agrees in gender and number with the direct object pronouns lo, la, li and le when they come before the verb. This also applies to irregular participles. See the lesson on direct object pronouns.

Avere vs Essere: Participio Passato

Avere

Let’s have look at a sentence containing the passato prossimo of the verb avere.

As you might have guessed, the structure of the passato prossimo of the verb avere is:

Present of the verb avere+ past participle avuto.

Have a look at the conjugation:

• Io ho avuto
• Tu hai avuto
• Lui/Lei ha avuto
• Noi abbiamo avuto
• Voi avete avuto
• Loro hanno avuto

Essere

Let’s now have a look at a sentence with the passato prossimo of the verb essere.

And here’s the structure:

Conjugated form of the present of the verb essere + past participle (stato, stato, state, stati).

Have a look at the conjugation:

• Io sono stato/stata
• Tu sei stato/stata
• Lui/Lei è stato/stata
• Noi siamo stati/state
• Voi siete stati/state
• Loro sono stati/state

Remember that the past participle of verbs with essere as auxiliary verb changes depending on the subject of the sentence.

How to Know Which Auxiliary Verb to use?

When it comes to conjugating the Italian passato prossimo, one of the hardest topic is the choice of the auxiliary verbs essere andavere.

Whether you are dealing with an irregular or regular passato prossimo nothing changes. The important thing is that you know whether the main verb is transitive or intransitive:

• Avere is used with transitive verbs, that is, verbs that are linked to the direct object without the use of any preposition
• Essere is used with intransitive verbs, that is, verbs that need a preposition to be linked to the indirect object

This is a useful starting rule, but it is not the whole story: not every intransitive verb takes essere. Essere is used with verbs of movement and change of state (andare, venire, arrivare, partire, uscire, nascere, morire), with reflexive verbs and with essere itself. Many intransitive verbs take avere, for example dormire (ho dormito), camminare (ho camminato), ridere (ho riso) and lavorare (ho lavorato). The full rule is in Essere vs Avere in Italian.