1.2.2 Present perfect with essere

Following is a list of commonly used verbs that take essere as the auxiliary in the passato prossimo:

 

 

 

2. Present perfect of verbs that express staying in location:

 

 

3. Present perfect of verbs that express a change in state:

 

When you form the present perfect ( passato prossimo) with essere, you have to match your past participle with the gender and number of the subject. For example, a past participle for andare could be andato, andata, andati, or andate, depending on the gender and number of the subject.

 

E.g.,

 

I went (for a female)                           Sono andata

We went                                              Siamo andati/e

You went (to a male, informal)           Sei andato

 

Accordingly, your past participle will end in  –o for a masculine singular subject, -a for a femine singular subject, -i for masculine plural subjects (or mixed gender in the plural),  -e for feminine plural subjects.

 

Attenzione! If you have a set of mixed gender plural subjects, i.e., one or more masculine subjects and one or more feminine subjects, then the past participle will take the form of masculine plural.

For example,

 

Marco e Lucia sono andati a scuola in autobus. 

 

Following is an example of uscire (to exit; to go out), a verb that takes essere, fully conjugated in the passato prossimo:

 

 

 

A definition of intransitive:

 

Just above we said that you will often use essere to form the present perfect with intransitive verbs. Intransitive verbs are often defined as verbs that do not allow a direct object.

 

For example,

Maria è andata (dove?) a Roma.

Maria went (where?) to Rome.

 

Giovanni è partito (quando?) due giorni fa.

Giovanni left (when?) two days ago.

 

In the two examples above, andare and partire are both intransitive verbs.