In Italian, we have different tenses for talking about the past. The most widely used is the passato prossimo, which can be used both as an equivalent of the English simple past or the present perfect.
This tense is very easy to form, you just need to use the present tense of the verb essere (to be) or avere (to have) and the past participle of the verbs you are conjugating.
What is the past participle?
The participio passato in Italian is very important, and knowing how to form it will be essential for using compound tenses, which are verb tenses made up of the verb essere (to be) or avere (to have) followed by a past participle.
Regular past participles can be formed by dropping the endings –are, –ere, –ire from the infinitive form of the verb (infinito) and adding the suffixes –ato, –uto, or –ito.
Here are some examples:
- imparare (to learn)
- imparato (learned)
Ho imparato l’italiano da piccola.
I learned Italian when I was a child.
- credere (to believe)
- creduto (believed)
Non gli ho creduto.
I did not believed them.
- finire (to finish)
- finito (finished)
Hai finito di cucinare?
Have you finished cooking?
How to use the past participle with potere, volere, and dovere?
Many Italian verbs have an irregular past participle. However, you’re in luck, as volere, potere, and dovere have a regular past participle even if they have irregular conjugations in the present.
Thus, we will have:
- Volere: voluto
Ho voluto dirtelo personalmente.
I wanted to tell you in person.
- Potere: potuto
Non ho potuto finire tutto.
I was not able to finish all of it.
- Dovere: dovuto
Avresti dovuto dirmelo prima.
You should have told me earlier.
How to form compound tenses with potere, volere, and dovere?
As we already mentioned, the past participle form of verbs is used in Italian in all compound tenses.
This is quite handy, as to form them you will only need to know the conjugations of essere and avere and just add the same past participle to all of them.
Note that these verbs are auxiliary verbs, so they are followed by another verb in the infinitive. Depending on the verb that follows, they can either take essere or avere in the compound tense.
So, if you say:
- sono andato (I went) you will use essere: sono voluto, potuto, dovuto andare.
While if you say:
- ho mangiato (I ate), you will use avere: ho voluto, potuto, dovuto mangiare.
If you use the verb essere, make sure you remember to change the ending of the past participle to match the gender and number of the subject.
With the verb avere, on the other hand, the past participle always stays the same.
Let’s see some conjugations:
Passato prossimo of volere (simple past or present perfect)
| presente avere/essere | participio passato | |
|---|---|---|
| Io | ho/sono | voluto/a |
| Tu | hai/sei | voluto/a |
| Lui / Lei | ha/è | voluto/a |
| Noi | abbiamo/siamo | voluto/i/e |
| Voi | avete/siete | voluto/i/e |
| Loro, Loro | hanno/sono | voluto/i/e |
Trapassato prossimo of potere (past perfect)
| imperfetto avere/essere | participio passato | |
|---|---|---|
| Io | avevo/ero | potuto/a |
| Tu | avevi/eri | potuto/a |
| Lui / Lei | aveva/era | potuto/a |
| Noi | avevamo/eravamo | potuto/i/e |
| Voi | avevate/eravate | potuto/i/e |
| Loro, Loro | avevano/erano | potuto/i/e |
Condizionale passato of dovere (past conditional)
| condizionale avere/essere | participio passato | |
|---|---|---|
| Io | avrei/sarei | potuto/a |
| Tu | avresti/saresti | potuto/a |
| Lui / Lei | avrebbe/sarebbe | potuto/a |
| Noi | avremmo/saremmo | potuto/i/e |
| Voi | avreste/sareste | potuto/i/e |
| Loro, Loro | avrebbero/sarebbero | potuto/i/e |
