Passato Prossimo con Avere

Passato prossimo with avere (to have)
When the present tense of  avere (ho, hai, etc.) combines with the Past Participle (Participio passato)  of itself (avuto) or another verb (mangiato, bevuto, etc.) the composition of the two elements forms the Passato Prossimo¹The Passato Prossimo is formed for most of the verbs with avere. You will learn about the Passato Prossimo formed with essere in the next chapter. (ho avuto, ‘I had/have had/ did have‘; hai mangiato ‘you ate/have eaten/did eat‘; ha bevuto ‘he/she drank/has drunk/did drink‘, etc.). It is quite simple! Every time you want to talk about something  that happened in the past, this morning as well as ten years ago, you simply combine the two verb forms and you are done:

So, if you want to say, for example:

• I had (or have had, or did have) an unforgettable experience, you must first choose the correct form of avere (ho in this case), then add the past participle of the verb you want to express in the past (avere in this case) and you obtain (Io) Ho avuto un’esperienza indimenticabile
• John ate (or have eaten, or did eat) too much yesterday, you must first choose the correct form of avere (ha in this case), then add the past participle of the verb you want to express in the past (mangiare in this case) and you obtain John ha mangiato troppo ieri
  
• We read (or have read, or did read) an interesting book for this course, you must first choose the correct form of avere (abbiamo in this case), then add the past participle of the verb you want to express in the past (leggere in this case) and you obtain (Noi) abbiamo letto un libro interessante per questo corso
• They slept  (or have slept, did sleep) well last night, you must first choose the correct form of avere (hanno in this case), then add the past participle of the verb you want to express in the past (dormire in this case) and you obtain (Loro) hanno dormito bene ieri notte

If you want to make a negative Passato Prossimo, you simply had non in front of it:

• (Io) Non ho avuto un’esperienza indimenticabile ‘I didn’t have (or haven’t had) an unforgettable experience
• John non ha mangiato troppo ieri ‘John didn’t eat (or haven’t eaten) too much yesterday
  
• (Noi) Non abbiamo letto un libro interessante per questo corso ‘We didn’t read (or haven’t read) an interesting book for this course
  
• (Loro) non hanno dormito bene ieri notte ‘They didn’t sleep (or haven’t slept) well last night

As can be seen from the examples above, the auxiliary avere always precedes directly the past participle. The only words that can come between the auxiliary and the past participle are adverbs like sempre (always), mai (never), ancora (yet), già (already), etc.:

• Ho sempre avuto una moto (I always had a motorcycle)
• Non ho mai mangiato l’avocado (I have never eaten avocado)
• Non abbiamo ancora letto il libro (We haven’t read the book yet).
• Ho già dormito due ore (I’ve already slept two hours)

NOTE: In Italian, the adverbs mai (never), ancora (yet) can only be used in negative sentences.

• Look at the above female characters. Pretend you are the subject of all the past the actions presented and say what you did “yesterday.” Check if there are mistakes in your spoken Italian using Speech to Text.
• Work with another student. Ask he/she if (You both can check your spoken Italian using Speech to Text):
  
  • he/she ate or not this morning
    
  • he/she slept well or not last night
    
  • he/she saw a movie recently
• Write down 4 sentences in the past that include the words sempre (always), mai (never), ancora (yet), già (already). Then, use  Spell and Grammar Checker to check if there are mistakes in your written Italian.