Avere or Essere in compound tenses?
How to pick the right helping verb — and when the past participle has to agree.
The rule of thumb
Most verbs use avere. Verbs that use essere are usually intransitive verbs of movement or change of state (andare, venire, partire, arrivare, nascere, morire, diventare), plus essere and stare themselves, and all reflexive verbs.
A quick test: if the verb can take a direct object (I ate an apple), it almost always uses avere.
- Ho mangiato una pizza.I ate a pizza.
- Sono andata a Roma.I (f.) went to Rome.
- Ci siamo svegliati presto.We woke up early.
Agreement with essere
With essere, the past participle agrees with the subject in gender and number, like an adjective: andato, andata, andati, andate.
With avere, the participle normally stays in -o — unless a direct object pronoun (lo, la, li, le) comes before it: Le ho viste (I saw them, f.).
Verbs that use both
Some verbs use avere when they take an object and essere when they don't: Ho finito il lavoro (I finished the work) vs. Il film è finito (The film ended). Others: cominciare, passare, salire, scendere, cambiare.
Common mistakes
Andare is a verb of movement — it takes essere.
With essere the participle agrees with the subject.
Test yourself
0 / 4 answered1. Lucia ___ partita stamattina.
2. Noi ___ mangiato troppo.
3. Mi ___ svegliato alle sette.
4. Le ragazze sono ___.