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Day 14 Premium

Past tense — passato prossimo.

Today's lesson is Italian's most-used past tense — passato prossimo, literally 'recent past'. It works for almost everything you've done recently. You'll learn how to form it, the two helping verbs (avere or essere), the most common irregular past participles, and how to describe your weekend in five sentences.

Estimated time25 minutesGoalTalk about past events using passato prossimo
Day 14 · 4 focused lessons

Your four lessons today

  1. With avere

    Avere + past participle. Endings: -ato (-are), -uto (-ere), -ito (-ire). The participle never changes form with avere.

    Start lesson 19–11 min
    With avere
  2. With essere10–12 min
  3. 10 irregulars9–11 min
  4. Weekend recap9–11 min
India bridge

Must-know irregular past participles — learn these 8

fare → fatto (done), dire → detto (said), vedere → visto (seen), leggere → letto (read), scrivere → scritto (written), aprire → aperto (opened), prendere → preso (taken), mettere → messo (put). These 8 cover 80% of real usage. Memorise them now — they appear in every conversation about the past.

Open Day 14 cheat sheet 1-page PDF
Next upDay 15 — Future, opinions & final role-play