Free Passato Prossimo Worksheets

Five passato prossimo exercises

Each worksheet uses one of five exercises.

1. Avere or essere? Each line gives a subject and a verb with its meaning, as in lei · partire (to leave), and students write avere or essere. The key adds the full form, lei è partita.
2. Write the passato prossimo. Students write the whole form, as in noi · parlare (to speak) → ____. The key gives noi abbiamo parlato, and io sono andato/a where the person could be a man or a woman.
3. Participle endings. Students write the last letter of the past participle, o, a, i or e, as in Le ragazze sono partit__ alle otto.
4. Sentences to complete. Students write both words, the form of essere or avere and the participle, as in Le ragazze ______ (partire) alle otto. (sono partite). This exercise leaves out sentences where io or noi is dropped, since the student couldn't tell who it is. It also leaves out the dovere, potere and volere sentences where essere and avere are both right.
5. Verb table. Each row gives the infinitive and its meaning, and students fill in the auxiliary, the past participle and the lei form, as in andare · essere · andato · lei è andata. The “each other” verbs use the loro form instead.

The first two drill the choice between avere and essere and the form that goes with it. The third drills the ending alone, and the fourth asks for the form of essere or avere as well, as in sono partite. The verb table puts all three answers for one verb on a single line, from essere to lei è andata.

Choosing the verbs and the sentences

Pick the exercise first. For Avere or essere?, Write the passato prossimo and the verb table, you then pick one or more verb sets:

• Essere verbs: 18, from going and coming (andare, venire, partire) to essere itself and riuscire
• Common avere verbs: 44 with regular participles, such as parlato, venduto and capito
• Irregular participles: 30 avere verbs, such as fatto, detto, preso, messo and scritto
• Reflexive verbs: 32 entries, including six that mean “each other”, such as conoscersi, and four with an object after the verb, such as lavarsi le mani
• Verbs that take both: eight, such as salire, which takes essere in salire sul treno and avere in salire le scale

For Participle endings and Sentences to complete, you pick one or more kinds of sentence instead:

• With essere: le ragazze sono partite
• Reflexive verbs: Giulia si è alzata
• With avere: Le ho trovate sotto il divano
• Verbs that take both: è salita sul treno, ha salito le scale
• Dovere, potere, volere: è dovuta partire, ha dovuto lavorare

Both lists are the same as in the passato prossimo quiz. Nothing is preselected, so a sheet holds only what you chose, and if you press Create worksheet too early, it outlines what's still missing.

Lines, paper and the answer key

Choose 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 lines, and press Shuffle for a new sheet from the same choices. On the preview, pick A4 or US Letter, and print with the answer key or without it. Neither is chosen for you, and the black-and-white sheets appear once you've picked both. The key starts on a new page, so the worksheet prints cleanly on its own. Where two answers are right, the key prints both, such as ho perso and ho perduto, or Giulia si è lavata le mani and si è lavate le mani. To keep a copy, choose Save as PDF in the print dialog.

Past participle agreement exercises

Participle endings and Sentences to complete are the agreement exercises, where students choose between endings such as partito and partite. With essere the participle agrees with the subject, so Le ragazze sono partit__ alle otto. takes an -e for le ragazze. Reflexive verbs do the same (Giulia si è alzata), and in the Dovere, potere, volere sentences the ending depends on è or ha: è dovuta partire, ha dovuto lavorare. With avere the participle agrees only with lo, la, li or le before the verb, as in Le ho trovate sotto il divano. Without one, it keeps its -o ending, as in Giulia ha comprato le mele al mercato. Mix With essere and With avere on one sheet, and students have to check whether the verb takes essere or avere before they add an ending.

Free passato prossimo worksheets for classrooms

The worksheets are free and need no account, and teachers may photocopy them for their classes. Print them on A4 or US Letter, or save them as PDF.

To practice on screen, the passato prossimo quiz asks the same kinds of question one at a time and gives the reason after every answer. For the rules behind the answer key, from the verbs that take essere to agreement with avere (le ho comprate), read passato prossimo: essere or avere. For the rest of each verb's forms, use the Italian verb conjugation worksheets. If you learn French too, the passé composé is built the same way, from avoir or être plus the past participle, and the passé composé worksheets print the same five exercises. And when the first sheet comes back marked, Shuffle gives you a second one from the same choices for the retest.

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).