Passato Prossimo: Essere or Avere? Rules, Examples and Agreement

The other 498 verbs in the list take avere only. Of the 73 that take essere only, 60 take it on their own and 13 are always used with si, such as fidarsi, pentirsi, accorgersi, arrabbiarsi, innamorarsi, vergognarsi and laurearsi. To check when to use essere or avere with a single verb, look it up in the Italian verb conjugation tables.

The passato prossimo rules: essere or avere

The basic rule for passato prossimo essere or avere is that most verbs take avere (ho parlato), and essere goes with these groups:

• Going and coming: andare, venire, arrivare, partire, entrare, uscire, tornare, cadere
• Staying: stare, restare, rimanere
• Becoming, being born and dying: diventare, nascere, morire, sparire
• Happening, lasting, costing and being liked, where the subject is the thing: succedere, durare, costare, piacere, as in la pizza è piaciuta
• Essere itself: sono stato, with the participle stato that essere shares with stare
• Every reflexive verb, meaning every verb used with mi, ti, si, ci or vi: mi sono alzato

Moving alone doesn't decide it, since camminare, nuotare, viaggiare and ballare take avere. Apart from reflexive verbs, a verb with a direct object, such as i compiti in ho finito i compiti, always takes avere too.

The table gives passato prossimo examples for the common essere verbs, each with its meaning and participle, such as che cosa è successo?, il viaggio è durato, le scarpe sono costate and la pizza è piaciuta.

All 60 verbs in our list that take essere on their own, most common first: essere, stare, andare, venire, piacere, arrivare, morire, tornare, succedere, sembrare, riuscire, diventare, uscire, entrare, rimanere, restare, accadere, scappare, mancare, partire, cadere, impazzire, bastare, valere, esistere, importare, parere, nascere, ritornare, dispiacere, durare, sopravvivere, scomparire, sedere, costare, esplodere, fuggire, divenire, sparire, crollare, apparire, capitare, avvenire, sfuggire, invecchiare, provenire, dipendere, scivolare, rientrare, scoppiare, giungere, risorgere, sorgere, scorrere, svanire, evadere, marcire, precipitare, ingrassare, dimagrire.

Past participle agreement with essere

With essere, the past participle changes its last letter to match the subject, as in le ragazze sono partite. The four forms are andato, andata, andati and andate, and a mixed group takes the masculine plural, the -i form: Marco e Giulia sono partiti.

With io and tu, the ending depends on who is speaking or being spoken to. A woman writes sono andata, and a man writes sono andato. With noi, voi and loro it's siamo andati, or siamo andate for a group of women. When you speak to a man with the formal Lei, it's Lei è andato.

Reflexive verbs always take essere

Every reflexive verb, meaning every verb used with mi, ti, si, ci or vi, takes essere: mi sono alzato, mi sono alzata. The participle agrees with the subject, as with any essere verb, and the “each other” verbs do the same: ci siamo conosciuti, Marco e Giulia si sono telefonati.

With an object after the verb, such as le mani, the usual agreement is still with the subject: Giulia si è lavata le mani. Agreeing with the object instead, as in si è lavate le mani, is also correct but less common.

Eight verbs that take essere or avere

Eight verbs take either, and the words after the verb decide which: salire, scendere, correre, passare, crescere, cambiare, cominciare and finire.

In the avere column each verb has a direct object, such as le scale or tre figli. Correre works differently, taking essere when you run to a place (a casa) and avere for the running itself (per un'ora). With avere the participle doesn't agree with the subject, which is why it's è salita but ha salito.

Verbs that take either with the same meaning

Some verbs take essere or avere with no change in meaning, such as vivere and the weather verbs piovere and nevicare. Ho vissuto a Roma and sono vissuto a Roma are both right, but with an object vivere takes only avere: ho vissuto una bella esperienza. With the weather verbs, è piovuto and ha piovuto are both right, and avere is used more for a long stretch, as in ha piovuto tutto l'inverno.

Dovere, potere and volere

On their own, dovere, potere and volere take avere: ho dovuto. Before an infinitive, the basic form of a verb such as andare or lavorare, they usually take what that verb takes. That gives sono dovuto andare, because andare takes essere, and ho dovuto lavorare. Before a verb that takes essere, avere is also accepted today, as in ho dovuto andare, although it used to be called a mistake. With essere the participle agrees: Giulia è dovuta partire.

With mi, ti, si, ci or vi in front of both verbs, you need the second verb's auxiliary, which is essere in mi sono dovuto alzare and non ci sono potuto andare. When the small word is joined to the end of the infinitive, avere is fine: ho dovuto alzarmi.

Past participle agreement with avere

With avere, the participle never agrees with the subject: le ragazze hanno mangiato. It has to agree with lo, la, li or le before the verb (l' before a vowel):

• la pizza? l'ho mangiata
• le scarpe? le ho comprate
• tua sorella? l'ho vista
• i tuoi amici? li ho visti

With ne the participle usually agrees, as in di mele, ne ho mangiate tre. With mi, ti, ci and vi it may agree or not, so Marco ci ha visto and Marco ci ha visti are both right. With che it usually stays as it is, as in la lettera che ho scritto, although la lettera che ho scritta is also correct, if less common today. The passato prossimo quiz tests only lo, la, li and le.

Irregular past participles

A regular participle turns -are into -ato, -ere into -uto and -ire into -ito: parlato, venduto, capito. Of the 600 verbs in our list, 146 have a participle that breaks this pattern, and they fall into families by ending:

A few stand on their own, such as stato and nato. Nato, morto, rimasto and venuto go with essere, so they change their ending like andato and andata.

How to learn essere and avere in the passato prossimo

Learn which verbs take essere first, then the endings, and leave dovere, potere and volere for last.

1. Start from “most verbs take avere”. Then learn the essere groups: going and coming (andare, partire), staying (rimanere) and change (nascere, diventare).
2. Add every reflexive verb. Each one takes essere, from mi sono alzata to ci siamo conosciuti.
3. Learn the eight that take both with the words attached. Learn salire le scale beside salire sul treno, and avere or essere comes with it.
4. Make essere participles match the subject. It's le ragazze sono partite, and Marco e Giulia sono partiti for a mixed group.
5. With avere, make the participle agree only with lo, la, li and le before the verb, as in le ho comprate.
6. Leave dovere, potere and volere for last. They usually follow the second verb: sono dovuto andare, ho dovuto lavorare.

The passato prossimo quiz drills each step on its own: the Essere verbs set for the groups, Reflexive verbs for mi, ti and si, and Verbs that take both for the eight pairs. Its Agreement mode tests the participle in short everyday sentences, such as Le ragazze sono ___ alle otto., with the reason after every answer. For a class, the passato prossimo worksheets print the same sets in five exercises with an answer key. Start with the Essere verbs set, and Practice my mistakes will show you which of the 18 to drill next.

Frequently asked questions

Licenses and credits

Conjugation tables come from English Wiktionary through kaikki.org (CC BY-SA 4.0). Verbs are ranked by Hermit Dave's FrequencyWords list, built from OpenSubtitles 2018 (CC BY-SA 4.0).