Passato prossimo con Essere

How to form Passato Prossimo with essere (to be)
As you have learned in the previous chapter, the majority of Italian verbs use avere as auxiliary. Other verbs (not many) use essere. A very important thing to keep in mind is that the Past Participle of the verbs conjugated with essere (unlike the verb avere) must agree in gender and number with the subject (the person, animal doing the action, or being described). See the difference between the two constructions:

So, every time you want to talk about something that happened in the past (this morning as well as ten years ago) with the auxiliary essere, you must combine the present tense of essere and the  Past Participle of the verb you want to make past, according to the gender and number (singular/plural) of the subject. Of course, the subject pronouns (io, tu, noi, voi and loro) can be masculine or feminine according to the person(s) they refer too: Io (man) sono cresciuto in Italia / Io (woman) sono cresciuta in Italia (I grow up in Italy), etc.

• The previously studied (see Unità 4.1) c’è (there is) and ci sono (there are) follow the same pattern when expressed in the Passato Prossimo. C’è becomes c’è stato/a and ci sono becomes ci sono stati/e depending on the subject: Ieri c’è stato un concerto interessante (Yesterday there was /has been an interesting concert), Ieri c’è stata una conferenza interessante (Yesterday there was /has been an interesting conference), Ci sono stati alcuni incidenti (There were /have been some incidents), Ci sono state alcune proteste (There were /have been some protests)
• To make a negative Passato Prossimo, you simply had non in front of it: Giovanna è cresciuta in Italia > Giovanna non è cresciuta in Italia (Giovanna didn’t grew up in Italy)
• The auxiliary essere 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): Non sono mai stato in Italia (I have never been to Italy)

When to use the auxiliary essere
There are no unequivocal rules for choosing essere instead of avere, but rather some practical clues.

• The auxiliary essere is used to form the past tense of itself: Sono stato bravo I have been good, Siamo stati in Italia l’anno scorso We have been in Italy last year)
• The auxiliary essere is used to form the past tense of most intransitive verbs¹Verbs are divided into two categories: transitive and intransitive. A transitive verb expresses an action that transits directly (without any preposition) from the subject to an object. A transitive verb is usually followed by a direct object, a noun, or pronoun that directly receives the action of the verb: Io scrivo una lettera (I writes a letter), Conosco bene tuo fratello (I know your brother well). In the examples above, the words lettera and tuo fratello are the direct objects of the transitive verbs scrivere and conoscere. It is easy to recognize a direct object since it answers the question Che cosa? (What?) or Chi? (Whom?). Every time these two questions can be formulated, the verb can be considered transitive, even if the object is not expressed. In fact, a transitive verb does not always require a direct object to complete its meaning, but alwaysanswers the questions Chi? or Che cosa?. For example, in Il professore scrive (The professor is writing), the direct object is not explicit, but the action of ‘writing’ itself implies an object of writing, whether it is a letter, a postcard, or an essay. An intransitive verb is never followed by a direct object but may have an object preceded by a preposition: Gli studenti vanno a scuola (The students are going to school), Parlo a te (I am talking to you). An intransitive verb answers the questions Dove? (Where?), Quando? (When?), A chi? (To whom?), Con che cosa? (With what?), and so on but never Chi? or Che cosa?., especially those involving movement (andare ‘to go’, partire ‘to leave’), inactivity (stare ‘to stay‘, rimanere ‘to remain‘), transformation in the state of being (crescere ‘to grow‘, morire ‘to die‘, cambiare ‘to change‘), appearance (sembrare ‘to seem‘ ‘to look like‘) and events (succedere ‘to happen’ ). Note the past participle of essere and stare are equivalent in Italian: I have been and I have stayed are both translated as Io sono stato/a
• The auxiliary essere is also used with all reflexive verbs and the verb piacere (Unità 14.2)
  

While it is a good idea to keep it in mind, it may also be helpful to memorize the most common verbs that go with essere using La casa del verbo essere

Note: a) succedere (to happen) has an irregular Past participle (successo); b) the verbs indicated with an* (correre, salire, scendere) can also form with avere (see Unità 14.3).

• Look at the above pictures. Try to imagine what Leonardo Di Caprio, Cobe Bryant, etc. did yesterday. Using the verbs in La casa dell’essere, write one sentence for each character. Then, use Spell and Grammar Checker to check if there are mistakes in your written Italian.
• Work with another student. Ask he/she e… (you both can check your spoken Italian using Speech to Text):
  
  • When and where was he/she born?
    
  • When did he/she arrive to New York?
    
  • Where did he/she did go to High School?