Italian All-in-One For Dummies (168 page)
Read Italian All-in-One For Dummies Online
Authors: Consumer Dummies
3. Combine the two forms, and you've arrived in the present perfect.
The following table shows you how to conjugate
trovare
(
to find
)
in the present perfect
by
using the helping verb
avere.
Here are some examples of the present perfect tense using
avere:
Io ho mangiato tutti i biscotti.
(
I ate all the cookies.
)
Hai scritto molte lettere oggi.
(
You wrote many letters today.
)
Paolo ha letto due libri durante il fine settimana.
(
Paolo read two books over the weekend.
)
Abbiamo ricevuto una bella lettera dalla zia.
(
We received a lovely letter from our aunt.
)
Avete capito?
(
Have you understood?
)
Hanno detto una bugia.
(
They told a lie.
)
Avere
verbs don't require you to make the participle agree with the subject. They do require agreement, however, if you use a direct object pronoun (see
Chapter 3
in Book III). As with most pronouns, direct object pronouns precede the verb. They agree in number and gender with the noun they replace.
When direct object pronouns precede the conjugated
avere
verbs, they look like this:
Hanno visitato il museo. L'hanno visitato.
(
They visited the museum. They visited it.
)
Lo
(
it
) substitutes for
il museo,
but because it already agrees in number and gender with the participle,
visitato,
nothing changes.
Lo
does contract with
hanno,
in the interests of flow. Now compare these sentences:
Hanno visitato la chiesa. L'hanno visitata.
(
They visited the church. They visited it.
)
La
(
it
) substitutes for
la chiesa,
so the past participle,
visitata,
takes on a feminine, singular ending. Here are a couple more examples:
Ho comprato le scarpe. Le ho comprate.
(
I bought the shoes. I bought them.
)
Hai visto gli amici?
Li hai visti?
(
Have you seen your friends? Have you seen them?
)
In the first example,
scarpe
are feminine plural, so the pronoun and the participle's ending are also feminine plural. In the second example,
gli amici,
masculine plural, requires the corresponding masculine plural ending on the participle.
The direct object pronouns
mi, ti, ci,
and
vi
don't require agreement between themselves and the past participle. Such agreement does still occur â
Lui ci ha chiamati
(
He called us
) â but it's entirely optional.
Note:
Avere
always conjugates with itself to form the present perfect. Thus,
ho avuto
means
I have had/I had.
The following table shows
avere
conjugated in its entirety.
Conjugating verbs in the present perfect with essere
To conjugate a verb in the present perfect, using
essere
as its helper, you need to take three steps.
1. Form a past participle.
For example,
andare
becomes
andato,
and
partire
becomes
partito
.
2. Conjugate
essere
in the present tense so it reflects the subject.
For example,
io sono, tu sei, lei è,
and so on. (Flip to
Chapter 2
in Book IV for details.)
3. Put the conjugated form of
essere
before the past participle, and make the subject and the past participle agree in number and gender.
Lui è andato
(
he went
) but
lei è andata
(
she went
).
Noi
(
we â
a mixed group, thus masculine plural)
siamo andati
(
went
).
Noi
(
we
â a group of women)
siamo andate
(
went
).
The following table shows a verb of motion,
andare
(
to go
), conjugated in the present perfect with
essere.
The conjugated form of
essere
reveals the subject and that determines the gender and number of the past participle. Here are some examples:
à stato a casa.
(
He was at home.
)
à partita stamattina.
(
She left this morning.
)
Siamo andate a teatro insieme.
(
We went to the theater together.
)
Franco e Chiara sono arrivati tardi.
(
Franco and Chiara arrived late.
)
The participles' endings tell you that the first subject was a man; the second was a woman; the third, all women; and the fourth, a mixed gender group. For this last example, keep in mind that if you have a mixed group (even one man and 17 women, for example), you use the masculine.
The peculiarities of avere and essere
Both
avere
and
essere
have their own peculiarities.
Avere
wants agreement between participles and direct object pronouns. (If there were ever a reason to be specific, that would be it!)
Essere
wants agreements between participles and subjects. Something the two helping verbs share, however, is the ability to accept a word inserted between the helping verb and the past participle. This makes English speakers who were taught never to split an infinitive (such as
to already know
) nervous. For Italian speakers, the equivalent reaction is evoked when verbs are separated, generally
non posso lo leggere.
This is a mistake that makes Italian speakers cringe!
In this case, though, in a compound tense, you can insert a few little words:
giÃ
(
already
),
appena
(
just
), and
ancora
(
yet
). The following constructions, then, are both normal and acceptable in Italian.
La signora è già partita.
(
The lady has already left.
)
Sono appena arrivati.
(
They have already arrived.
)
Non hanno ancora parlato con il direttore.
(
They haven't yet spoken with the director.
)
Note:
Essere
always conjugates with itself to form the present perfect. Thus,
sono stato/sono stata
means
I was
(masculine and feminine speakers). The following table shows
essere
conjugated in its entirety.
