Italian Present Perfect
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Italian has several different past tenses, and the most important one is the passato prossimo. Just to make things interesting, it has three possible English equivalents:
| 1. | ho visitato | I visited | simple past | ||
| 2. | ho visitato | I have visited | present perfect | ||
| 3. | ho visitato | I did visit | past emphatic |
The passato prossimo is used when talking about:
Completed actions
| Sì, ho visitato la Sardegna. | Yes, I did visit Sardinia. | |
| È caduto ieri. | He fell yesterday. |
Repeated actions
| Ho visitato tre volte. | I’ve visited 3 times. | |
| È caduto di nuovo oggi. | He fell again today. |
Series of actions
| Ho visitato la Sardegna e poi sono andato in Sicilia. | I visited Sardinia and then I went to Sicily. | |
| Quando è caduto, ha iniziato a piangere. | When he fell, he started crying. |
Very recent actions, with appena
| Ho appena trovato l’hotel. | I just found the hotel. | |
| È appena caduto di nuovo. | He just fell again. |
Condition in likely situations (se clauses – lesson coming soon)
| Se hai perso, devi congratularti con il vincitore. | If you lost, you have to congratulate the winner. |
The passato prossimo is often used alongside the imperfect, which can be very confusing for Italian students. I’ll compare and contrast these two tenses in detail in a future lesson.
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