Italian · Elementary (A2) · Chapter 1 of 12
Talking about the past
Cosa hai fatto?
Say what you did yesterday or last weekend with the passato prossimo, using avere or essere, and words like ieri, scorso and fa.
In this chapter you'll learn to
- Say what you did yesterday and last weekend
- Choose between avere and essere in the past
- Make the past participle agree after essere
- Say when: yesterday, last Saturday, two days ago
Listen
It's Monday morning in an office in Padua. Giorgia and her colleague Nicola talk about their weekend. Listen to the whole dialogue first, then line by line.
Nicola
Ciao, Giorgia. Com'è andato il fine settimana?
Hi, Giorgia. How was your weekend?
Giorgia
Bene, grazie. Sabato sono andata a Venezia con mia sorella.
Good, thanks. On Saturday I went to Venice with my sister.
Nicola
Che bello! Cosa avete fatto?
How lovely. What did you do?
Giorgia
Abbiamo visto una mostra e abbiamo mangiato in una trattoria vicino a Rialto.
We saw an exhibition and we ate in a trattoria near Rialto.
Nicola
E a che ora siete tornate?
And what time did you get back?
Giorgia
Tardi. Siamo arrivate a Padova a mezzanotte. E tu, cosa hai fatto?
Late. We got to Padua at midnight. What about you, what did you do?
Nicola
Sabato ho lavorato. E ieri sono stato a casa tutto il giorno.
On Saturday I worked. And yesterday I stayed at home all day.
Giorgia
Hai dormito tutto il giorno?
Did you sleep all day?
Nicola
Un po'. E ho letto un libro. Poi la sera sono uscito con degli amici.
A bit. And I read a book. Then in the evening I went out with some friends.
Giorgia
Dove siete andati?
Where did you go?
Nicola
Al cinema. Abbiamo visto un film italiano molto bello.
To the cinema. We saw a very good Italian film.
Understand
The passato prossimo with avere
To say what you did, Italian mostly uses the . It has two parts: the present of (…) and the past participle, the form of the verb that means “worked”, “slept” and so on. means both “I worked” and “I have worked”.
Regular participles are easy: -are becomes -ato, -ere becomes -uto and -ire becomes -ito. But many common verbs have an irregular participle, so learn them one by one.
| Infinitive | Participle | Example |
|---|---|---|
| (I worked on Saturday.) | ||
| (I had a problem.) | ||
| (Did you sleep well?) | ||
| (What did you do?) | ||
| (We saw a film.) | ||
| (I read a book.) | ||
| (She took the bus.) |
With essere: sono andata, siamo tornate
Verbs of movement from one place to another, like , , and (to go out), use instead of . So do and : both have the participle , so means “I was at home” or “I stayed at home”.
With , the participle changes like an adjective to match the subject: -o, -a, -i, -e. Giorgia says , Nicola says . For a group of men and women together, use -i.
| Person | A man / men | A woman / women |
|---|---|---|
| / / | ||
When? Ieri, scorso, fa
means “yesterday” and means “last night” or “yesterday evening”. For “last”, use after the noun. It's an adjective, so it agrees: , , , (last year).
after a length of time means “ago”: (two days ago), (a month ago).
- Ieri sera sono uscita con mia sorella.Last night I went out with my sister.
- La settimana scorsa ho lavorato molto.Last week I worked a lot.
- Siamo arrivati tre giorni fa.We arrived three days ago.
More in the grammar: The passato prossimo: talking about the past
New words
- Com'è andato…?How was…? / How did… go? ·
- Che bello!How lovely! / That's great.
- la mostraexhibition · feminine
- mangiareto eat · = I ate
- la trattoriatrattoria, small family restaurant · feminine
- ieriyesterday · = last night
- tutto il giornoall day · = all evening
- leggereto read · = I read (past)
- il librobook · masculine
- uscireto go out · with : /
- il cinemacinema · masculine; the same in the plural
- il filmfilm · masculine; the same in the plural
- scorsolast · ,
- faago · after the time:
Practise
1.Nicola is a man. How does he say “I went out”?
2.Complete with the past participle of .
What did you do on Saturday?
3.Giorgia and her sister got back at midnight. Complete with the participle of .
We got back at midnight.
4.Put the words in order.
Tap the words below in the right order.We saw a very good exhibition.
5.Complete: “La settimana ___ ho lavorato molto.”
6.Match the Italian with the English.
Pick a word on the left, then its meaning on the right.
0 of 6 exercises done.
Say it out loud
Com'è andato il fine settimana?
How was your weekend?
Listen, then say it out loud, as close to the recording as you can.
Check
Five questions on this chapter. Then mark it as finished to add its words to your review deck.
0 of 5 answered.