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Essere vs Avere: Which Auxiliary Italian Verbs Take in the Past

Essere vs avere in the Italian past: which verbs take each auxiliary, why sono andata agrees but ho mangiato does not, and verbs that take both.

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Key takeaways

  • Wikipedia's article on Italian conjugation says all transitive verbs and most intransitive verbs form the passato prossimo with avere.
  • Essere goes with essere itself, verbs of motion such as andare, venire and arrivare, reflexive verbs and the passive.
  • With essere, the participle agrees with the subject: Maria è arrivata, i ragazzi sono arrivati.
  • With avere the participle stays in -o, except before a preceding third-person object pronoun: l'ho vista, 'I saw her'.
  • Wikipedia notes no fully reliable rule exists for intransitive verbs, and some, such as vivere, can take either auxiliary.

Essere vs avere is the question that comes up as soon as you start the Italian past tense. The passato prossimo is built from an auxiliary plus a past participle, and the auxiliary is either avere, "to have", or essere, "to be". English uses "have" for everything ("I have eaten", "I have gone"), but Italian says ho mangiato and sono andato. This comparison covers which verbs take which auxiliary, what changes in the participle, and the cases where the rules blur.

Avere: the default for most verbs

Wikipedia's article on Italian conjugation states the main rule plainly: all transitive verbs and most intransitive verbs form the present perfect with avere in the present tense plus the past participle.

avere + amato
io ho amato
tu hai amato
lui / lei / Lei ha amato
noi abbiamo amato
voi avete amato
loro / Loro hanno amato

A transitive verb is one that can take a direct object: ho visto il ragazzo, "I saw the boy". Wikipedia's article on unaccusative verbs gives Ha telefonato, "he has phoned", as an intransitive example that also takes avere.

Essere: motion, change, reflexives

The same article says a small number of intransitive verbs use essere instead: essere itself, and verbs indicating motion, such as venire "to come", andare "to go" and arrivare "to arrive". Wikipedia's Italian grammar article adds two more groups:

  • Reflexive verbs always take essere: mi sono lavato, "I washed myself"; ci siamo visti, "we saw each other".
  • Unaccusative verbs, which the article describes as typically non-agentive verbs of motion and change of state, such as cadere "to fall" and morire "to die". Things that happen to the subject rather than things the subject does.

The passive is formed with essere too: Il cancello è stato appena aperto, "the gate has just been opened". Note that essere takes itself as auxiliary, and its participle is stato, shared with stare.

Wikipedia's article on unaccusative verbs puts the split in a wider frame. In languages with two auxiliaries, such as Italian, French and German, unaccusative verbs combine with "be" and unergative verbs with "have". Its paired Italian examples are È arrivato, literally "he is arrived", against Ha telefonato, "he has phoned".

Agreement: the participle that changes

The choice of auxiliary is not only about the helper verb. It decides whether the participle changes.

With essere, the participle agrees with the subject in gender and number, like an adjective. Wikipedia's table for arrivare:

essere + arrivato
io sono arrivato / arrivata
tu sei arrivato / arrivata
lui / lei / Lei è arrivato / arrivata
noi siamo arrivati / arrivate
voi siete arrivati / arrivate
loro / Loro sono arrivati / arrivate

The four endings follow nouns and adjectives: -o masculine singular, -a feminine singular, -i masculine plural, -e feminine plural. The Italian grammar article's example is egli è partito; ella è partita, "he left; she left".

With avere, the participle normally stays in -o. Wikipedia's conjugation article gives one exception: a third-person direct-object pronoun placed before the verb. Then the participle agrees with that object:

  • ho visto la ragazza, "I saw the girl", but l'ho vista, "I saw her".
  • Hai mangiato la mela? Sì, l'ho mangiata. "Have you eaten the apple? Yes, I've eaten it."

With a first- or second-person object pronoun, Wikipedia says the agreement is optional: non mi ha chiamato or chiamata.

Choosing the auxiliary, worked through

Run five sentences through the rules above.

  1. "Anna went to Rome." Andare is a verb of motion → essere; Anna is feminine singular → Anna è andata a Roma.
  2. "Marco and Luca arrived." Motion → essere; masculine plural → Marco e Luca sono arrivati.
  3. "We (two women) washed ourselves." Reflexive → essere; feminine plural → ci siamo lavate.
  4. "I read the letter." Leggere is transitive → avere; the object follows the verb, so no agreement → ho letto la lettera.
  5. "I read it (the letter)." Avere, but now the third-person pronoun la comes first → l'ho letta.

Of the five, three take essere and two take avere, but every participle that changed did so for one of two stated reasons: an essere subject, or a preceding third-person object pronoun. With four endings for each essere participle, arrivato, arrivata, arrivati, arrivate, there are 4 forms to choose from, and the subject always tells you which.

Where the rule runs out

Wikipedia is candid that a reliable rule cannot be given for the perfect tenses of intransitive verbs. It offers a rule of thumb, citing the Accademia della Crusca: if a verb's participle can work as an adjective, it takes essere. Its next sentence, on reflexive and unaccusative verbs, carries a citation-needed tag, with a note that andare is a counterexample. Some verbs take either: io ho vissuto and io sono vissuto both mean "I have lived". The article on unaccusative verbs adds that a single verb may combine with either auxiliary depending on meaning, context or regional variation, and that synonymous verbs in different languages do not always choose the same one.

The practical approach that follows from this is to learn each common intransitive verb together with its auxiliary, as a pair.

Practising the auxiliaries

The auxiliary appears in every compound tense, not only the passato prossimo; the imperfetto and passato prossimo comparison shows when you need it. Learn Italian for Beginners covers verbs, agreement and common tenses with practical examples, plus a unit on past events. It is one of our language-learning apps. For the gender endings that the participle copies, see Italian articles and gender.

Good to know

Frequently asked questions

Which Italian verbs use essere in the passato prossimo?
Essere itself, verbs of motion such as andare, venire and arrivare, reflexive verbs, and unaccusative verbs of change of state such as cadere ('to fall') and morire ('to die'). Wikipedia's articles on Italian grammar and conjugation list these groups. Transitive verbs take avere.
Why is it sono arrivata but ho mangiato?
Because the two auxiliaries treat the participle differently. With essere the participle agrees with the subject in gender and number, like an adjective, so a woman says sono arrivata. With avere it normally stays in -o whoever the subject is: ho mangiato, abbiamo mangiato.
Do Italian reflexive verbs take essere or avere?
Essere, always. Wikipedia gives mi sono lavato or lavata, 'I washed myself', and ci siamo visti, 'we saw each other'. The participle agrees with the subject, or with a third-person object pronoun placed before the verb.
Can an Italian verb take both essere and avere?
Yes. Wikipedia's Italian grammar article gives vivere as an example: io ho vissuto and io sono vissuto both mean 'I have lived'. Its article on unaccusative verbs adds that a single verb may combine with either auxiliary depending on meaning, context or region.

Sources

  1. Italian conjugation (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
  2. Italian grammar: Compound tense auxiliary verbs (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
  3. Unaccusative verb (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed

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