Italian past participle: -ato, -uto, -ito and irregulars

The past participle is the verb form that English makes with -ed or with an irregular form: “worked”, “eaten”, “seen”. In Italian it is the second half of the passato prossimo, after the auxiliary avere or essere: «ho lavorato», «ho mangiato», «sono andata». The compound tenses you will learn later use it too, so it pays to know the forms well.

Most participles are regular and follow the ending of the infinitive. A short list of very common verbs, mostly ending in -ere, have irregular participles that you simply learn by heart. A participle can also work as an adjective, and then it agrees like one: «La biglietteria è chiusa» “The ticket office is closed”, «Ho comprato un pollo già cotto» “I bought a ready-cooked chicken”.

Regular participles: -ato, -uto, -ito

To form a regular participle, take off the -are, -ere or -ire of the infinitive and add -ato, -uto or -ito. Almost every -are verb is regular. The -ire verbs are mostly regular too, including the ones that add -isc- in the present: finire → finito, capire → capito, pulire → pulito.

The -ere group is where most irregular participles are found, but many -ere verbs are perfectly regular: avere → avuto, sapere → saputo, potere → potuto, volere → voluto, dovere → dovuto, credere → creduto, ricevere → ricevuto.

Some regular participles need a small spelling change to keep the sound of the infinitive. In verbs ending in -cere and -scere, an i is added before -uto so that the c stays soft: piacere → piaciuto, conoscere → conosciuto, crescere → cresciuto. In verbs ending in -ciare and -giare, the i simply stays: cominciare → cominciato, mangiare → mangiato, viaggiare → viaggiato. Verbs in -care and -gare need no extra h, because a follows the consonant: cercare → cercato, pagare → pagato.

• Abbiamo parlato con la proprietaria dell’appartamento. · We spoke to the owner of the flat.
• Hai capito la domanda? · Did you understand the question?
• Il viaggio ci è piaciuto moltissimo. · We really enjoyed the trip.

The irregular participles to learn first

Irregular participles are frequent because the verbs that have them are frequent. They fall into a few families, which makes them easier to remember. Many end in -tto (fatto, detto, letto, scritto, rotto) or in -so (preso, chiuso, deciso, speso, messo). Others end in -sto (visto, chiesto, risposto, rimasto) or -rto (aperto, offerto, morto).

A few belong to no family. Essere and stare share the same participle, stato, so «sono stato a Roma» can mean “I have been to Rome” or “I stayed in Rome”. Venire gives venuto, nascere gives nato, vivere gives vissuto, bere gives bevuto and succedere gives successo. Two verbs have a second form you may meet in books: perdere → perso (also perduto) and vedere → visto (veduto is old-fashioned).

Verbs built on another verb copy its participle: rifare → rifatto, riprendere → ripreso, descrivere → descritto, promettere → promesso.

Agreement: when the ending changes

Which auxiliary a verb takes decides whether its participle changes. In short: most verbs take avere, while verbs of movement, staying and change of state, and all reflexive verbs, take essere.

With avere, the participle normally stays in its basic -o form, whoever the subject is: «Marco ha mangiato», «Giulia ha mangiato», «le ragazze hanno mangiato».

With essere, the participle behaves like an adjective and agrees with the subject in gender and number: -o for a man, -a for a woman, -i for men or a mixed group, -e for women only. A woman says «Sono arrivata», a man says «Sono arrivato». With the formal Lei, the participle agrees with the real person you are talking to: «Signora, è stata in vacanza?»

There is one important case where a participle with avere does change: when one of the direct object pronouns lo, la, li or le comes before it. «Hai visto Anna? Sì, l’ho vista.» «I biglietti? Li ho presi.» Keep this in mind whenever you see one of these pronouns before ho, hai or ha.

Pronunciation and spelling tips

In regular participles the stress always falls on the vowel of the ending: in parlato, venduto and dormito you stress the a, the u and the i. Participles never carry a written accent.

Many irregular participles have a double consonant: fatto, detto, letto, scritto, messo, rotto, successo. Hold the double sound a little longer than a single one. It matters: «fatto» means “done”, while «fato» is a different word, “fate”.

Some participles look exactly like nouns: letto is also “bed” and stato is also “state”. The context always makes the meaning clear. Finally, do not confuse the participle with the infinitive or the present tense: say «ho mangiato», never «ho mangiare» or «ho mangia».

• Che cosa è successo? Hai rotto un bicchiere? · What happened? Did you break a glass?
• Ieri sera ho letto a letto fino a mezzanotte. · Last night I read in bed until midnight.