Italian Passato Prossimo Exercises: avere or essere?
Italian Passato Prossimo Exercises: avere or essere?
You have the whole tense from Italian passato prossimo explained: pick the auxiliary, build the participle, and let it agree when the auxiliary is essere. These eight sentences put the three steps together.
The rule in one line per point
- Almost every verb takes avere, and the participle then stays in -o.
- Movement, permanence, change, weather, reflexive, impersonal and essere itself take essere.
- With essere, the participle agrees with the subject: sono andato, sono andata.
- A direct object pronoun pulls that agreement into an avere sentence: li ho visti.
- Camminare and telefonare sound like movement and still take avere.
Try it yourself
Pick the form that fits. You get the reason whether you are right or wrong, so a wrong click still teaches you something.
Eight sentences, eight past tenses. 0 of 8 answered.
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1. Ieri Marco ______ a Roma.
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2. Noi ______ una pizza ieri sera.
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3. Maria ______ la pizza.
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4. Anna ______ ieri sera.
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5. Io ______ per due ore.
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6. Il film ci ______ molto.
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7. Ieri mattina mi ______ alle dieci.
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8. Il concerto ______ alle 20.
Show the answers
- è andato: movement takes essere
- abbiamo mangiato: avere, and the participle stays in -o
- ha comprato: avere keeps the participle in -o
- è arrivata: with essere the participle agrees with the subject
- ho camminato: camminare takes avere
- è piaciuto: piacere takes essere
- sono alzato: reflexive verbs take essere
- è cominciato: the event as subject takes essere
Want a Hand?
Reading the rule is the easy part. Saying sono andato instead of ho andato while you are talking is a habit, and habits come from speaking with someone who catches the slip in the moment.
Book a free trial lesson and we will tell the story of your last weekend in the past tense together.