Italian 104 · Lesson 35
Essere or Avere in the Past
Choose a practical past-tense pattern and make the ending agree.
Begin ↓01 / 08
Compare familiar actions
Ho mangiato a casa.
I ate at home.
Sono andato al bar.
I went to the café. (man)
Many everyday actions take avere. Several common changes of place take essere. Learn the complete past form with the verb.
02 / 08
Avere is common
Ho visto un film. Ho fatto la spesa. Ho lavorato.
I saw a film. I did the shopping. I worked.
Eating, seeing, doing and working use avere in these ordinary sentences. This gives you a useful core of past actions.
03 / 08
An essere set
Sono arrivata tardi.
SOH-noh ar-ree-VAH-tah TAR-dee
I arrived late. (woman)
Siamo tornati a casa.
We came home. (men / mixed group)
Learn andare, arrivare, partire, tornare and uscire with essere in these uses.
04 / 08
Movement is not a universal rule
Ho camminato molto.
I walked a lot.
Ho viaggiato in treno.
I travelled by train.
Not every movement verb takes essere. Camminare uses avere, so avoid choosing the helper from movement alone.
05 / 08
Agreement with essere
Marco è arrivato. / Giulia è arrivata.
Marco arrived. / Giulia arrived.
Marco e Giulia sono arrivati. / Giulia e Anna sono arrivate.
Marco and Giulia arrived. / Giulia and Anna arrived.
Use -o for a man, -a for a woman, -i for men or a mixed group, -e for an all-female group.
06 / 08
Your routine in the past
Mi sono svegliato presto.
I woke up early. (man)
Ci siamo alzate alle sette.
We got up at seven. (women)
Reflexive verbs use essere too. Keep the small word before the helper.
07 / 08
A useful boundary
Giulia ha mangiato. / Marco ha mangiato.
Giulia ate. / Marco ate.
With ordinary avere examples, the participle does not agree with the subject. Object-pronoun agreement is a further pattern; keep it separate for now.
Remember this
Takeaway
Giulia è uscita e ha comprato il pane.
Giulia went out and bought bread.
Memorise high-frequency pairs such as ho fatto and sono andato. With essere, check who the subject is and adjust the ending.