When you first hear the term \u201cauxiliary verb,\u201d you might think: \u201cWhoa, that sounds complicated!\u201d<\/p>\n
In this post, we’re going to talk about what auxiliary verbs are and how they work in Italian. To contextualize the use of these verbs, we\u2019ll look at some example sentences about a student, Laura, who’s studying abroad in Florence, Italy<\/a>.<\/p>\n [fluentu-toc]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n An auxiliary verb is also known as a \u201chelping verb,\u201d because it helps you know what tense a sentence is in. Auxiliary verbs are paired with other verbs to indicate when something happened or was happening.<\/p>\n We have these in English as well. See if you can spot the difference between these examples:<\/p>\n “I am<\/strong> playing the violin.”<\/p>\n “I have been<\/strong> playing the violin for 12 years.”<\/p>\n “I had been<\/strong> playing the violin for 12 years when I broke my wrist and had to stop.”<\/p>\n Through the use of the helping verbs (highlighted in bold), the sentence changes its meaning completely. The first takes place in the present, the second in the present perfect continuous and the third takes us back in time to the past perfect continuous.<\/p>\n Helping verbs work the same way in Italian. By pairing an auxiliary verb with an action verb, you can change the tense of the sentence.<\/p>\n There are only three auxiliary verbs in Italian. The first two are our good friends\u00a0essere <\/em>(to be) and\u00a0avere<\/em> (to have). Essere<\/em> and avere <\/em>are used as auxiliary verbs when forming the past perfect tense<\/a> (passato prossimo)<\/em>.<\/p>\n The third is a verb you\u2019re probably also familiar with, which is\u00a0stare <\/em>(to be, to stand). Stare<\/em> is a bit different from the other auxiliaries, in that it’s used in the present progressive<\/a> and past progressive tenses (passato progressivo)<\/em>.<\/p>\n Italian auxiliary verbs are mainly used when you want to talk about something that happened in the past, or discuss an action that is (or was) going on over a period of time.<\/p>\n In Italian, this is done through compound tenses<\/strong>, which need two verbs that form a compound phrase to get your meaning across.<\/p>\n For beginners, it\u2019s important to know how to use the auxiliary verbs in the past perfect and present progressive tenses. For intermediate learners, the past progressive tense is important to know as well.<\/p>\n There are other more advanced tenses (such as the past subjunctive tense<\/a>) that also take auxiliary verbs. In your Italian learning journey, you’ll encounter auxiliary verbs at all levels.<\/p>\n For the purposes of this post, though, we’ll be introducing the past perfect, present continuous and past continuous tenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n The verbs we’ve introduced don’t always act as auxiliary verbs. When essere <\/em>and avere<\/em> are used in the present tense, they’re not acting as auxiliary verbs.<\/strong> For example:<\/p>\n Laura \u00e8<\/strong> una studentessa. <\/em>\u2014\u00a0<\/em>Laura is<\/strong> a student.<\/p>\n Laura ha<\/strong> un amico, Giorgio.<\/em>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>Laura has<\/strong> a friend, Giorgio.<\/p>\n In these two sentences, essere<\/em> and avere<\/em> act as present tense irregular verbs<\/a> rather than auxiliaries. So just because you see these verbs doesn’t mean the past perfect tense is close behind!<\/p>\n To form the past perfect tense,<\/em> you need to be familiar with the simple present tense conjugations of essere<\/em> and avere<\/em>. You can find the conjugations for both essere<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0avere<\/em><\/a> on verbi-italiani<\/a>.<\/p>\n Take a look at these sentences:<\/p>\n Laura ha comprato<\/strong> un biglietto online.<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 Laura bought<\/strong> a ticket online.<\/p>\n Anche Giorgio ha comprato<\/strong> un biglietto online<\/em>. \u2014 Also, Giorgio bought<\/strong> a ticket online.<\/p>\n Loro non hanno dovuto<\/strong> aspettare in fila<\/em>. \u2014 They didn\u2019t have to <\/strong>wait in line.<\/p>\n You’ll notice that each sentence has a present tense conjugation of the verb avere<\/em> plus the past participle of the second verb to form the past perfect tense. If you aren’t familiar with past participles, you can get a quick refresher over at One World Italiano<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n In these sentences, avere<\/em> is acting as an auxiliary verb. It\u2019s \u201chelping\u201d you know that the sentence is in the past perfect tense.<\/p>\n You might also notice that the compounds don’t translate into English the way you might expect, like “bought” as opposed to “had\/has bought.” That’s because, in Italian, you use the passato prossimo<\/em> to talk about actions that were completed in the past and are still relevant in the present.<\/p>\n To learn more about this compound tense and when to use it, check out a thorough explanation on Mango Languages<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cultural tip:<\/strong> If you want to drop by the Uffizi Galleries<\/a> in Florence (and you really should!), you can reserve your ticket online<\/a> and save yourself the stress of having to wait in miles-long queues to enter the place.<\/p>\n To summarize:<\/strong><\/p>\n To form the past perfect, you combine the following:<\/p>\n subject + auxiliary verb avere<\/em> in the present tense + past participle of the verb + rest of sentence<\/p>\n For 13 verbs related to motion<\/a>, you use essere <\/em>to put them in the past tense.\u00a0<\/p>\n Let\u2019s say that all the students in Laura and Giorgio\u2019s class are going to the Uffizi Galleries. But since Laura and Giorgio were the only ones who bought tickets online, the other students had to wake up early and wait in line to get theirs.<\/p>\n At around noon, when Laura and Giorgio see their classmates at the museum, they ask the group what they did that morning using avere<\/em> as an auxiliary:<\/p>\n Che cosa avete fatto<\/strong> questa mattina?<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 What did you<\/strong> do this morning?<\/p>\n A girl from the group answers:<\/p>\n Noi siamo partiti<\/strong> dal dormitorio alle 8 per andare al museo.<\/em> \u2014 We left<\/strong> the dormitory at 8 to go to the museum.<\/p>\n And a boy pipes up:<\/p>\n E poi, siamo andati<\/strong> al bar per un espresso e un cornetto.<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 And then we went<\/strong> to the bar for an espresso and a croissant.<\/p>\n Cultural tip:<\/strong>\u00a0Maybe the boys went to the bar to catch up on the score from last night’s football game<\/a>! If you see a TV in an Italian bar with sports news on, chances are that bar is frequented by locals. If there\u2019s no TV, you\u2019re probably in an establishment for tourists.<\/p>\n Giorgio then asks the following question:<\/p>\n E quando siete arrivati<\/strong> al museo?<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 And when did<\/strong> you arrive<\/strong> at the museum?<\/p>\n To which a classmate responds:<\/p>\n Le ragazze sono arrivate<\/strong> alle 9. E i ragazzi sono arrivati<\/strong> alle 9:30. Ma la fila era lunga. Allora, siamo entrati<\/strong> tutti alle 10. <\/em>\u2014\u00a0<\/em>The girls arrived<\/strong> at 9. And the boys arrived<\/strong> at 9:30. But the line was long. So, we<\/strong> all entered<\/strong> at 10.<\/p>\n You’ll notice that, in all these examples, essere<\/em> is acting as an auxiliary verb. It’s “helping” you know that these sentences are all in the past perfect tense.<\/p>\n To summarize:<\/strong><\/p>\n Use\u00a0essere<\/em>\u00a0as an auxiliary verb in the past perfect tense with this formula:<\/p>\n subject + auxiliary essere <\/em>in the present tense + past participle (agreeing in gender and number with the subject) of the verb + rest of sentence<\/p>\n Remember that reflexive verbs<\/a> always take the auxiliary essere <\/em>in the past perfect tense. To form the simple past tense with reflexive verbs, simply place the pronoun before the auxiliary verb:<\/p>\n C\u2019e molto da vedere al museo. Le ragazze si sono alzate<\/strong> presto.<\/em> \u2014 There\u2019s a lot to see at the museum. The girls woke up<\/strong> early. (feminine plural)<\/p>\n Ma i ragazzi si sono alzati<\/strong> pi\u00f9 tardi.<\/em> \u2014 But the boys woke up<\/strong> later. (masculine plural)<\/p>\n To summarize:<\/strong><\/p>\n If you need to use a reflexive verb in the past perfect tense, don’t despair! Simply use this formula:<\/p>\n subject + reflexive pronoun + auxiliary essere<\/em> in the present tense + past participle of the verb + rest of sentence<\/p>\n Observe how stare<\/em> is used as an auxiliary verb in these two sentences:<\/p>\n Laura sta <\/strong>scrivendo<\/strong> un SMS a Giorgio.<\/em> \u2014 Laura is writing<\/strong> a text message to Giorgio.<\/p>\n Giorgio sta aspettando<\/strong>\u00a0un SMS da Laura<\/em>. \u2014 Giorgio is waiting<\/strong> for a text from Laura.<\/p>\n Here, the present tense form of stare<\/em> is acting as an auxiliary, accompanied by the actual action.<\/p>\n But wait, what’s with these verbs ending in -ando<\/em> and -endo?<\/em> That\u2019s called the gerund form of the verb<\/a> or gerundio<\/em>. You use the gerund form with the present and past continuous tenses.<\/p>\n To summarize:<\/strong><\/p>\n The present continuous tense uses\u00a0stare<\/em> as an auxiliary verb in this fashion:<\/p>\n subject + auxiliary stare<\/em> in the present tense + gerund form of the verb + rest of sentence<\/p>\n How do you talk about activities that were going on over a period of time in the past? For that, you use the past continuous tense.<\/em><\/p>\n Let\u2019s take a look at these sentences:<\/p>\n Stavo guardando<\/strong>\u00a0“La Nascita di Venere” quando gli altri studenti\u00a0sono arrivati al museo.<\/em> \u2014\u00a0<\/em>I was looking<\/strong> at “The Birth of Venus” when the other students arrived at the museum.<\/p>\n Laura e Giorgio stavano guardando<\/strong>\u00a0“La Nascita di Venere”\u00a0quando gli altri studenti\u00a0sono arrivati. <\/em>\u2014\u00a0<\/em>Laura and Giorgio were looking at<\/strong> “The Birth of Venus” when the other students arrived.<\/p>\n So what\u2019s going on in these two sentences? The subject is engaged in an activity going on in the past. Then, the subject is interrupted by another action.<\/strong><\/p>\n In these sentences, the past continuous is used to indicate an action that was going on over a period of time, while the past perfect is used to indicate that the action got interrupted by another action (that wasn’t ongoing).<\/p>\n We also see two auxiliary verbs in the example sentences. Stare<\/em> (in its imperfect<\/strong> form) is used as an auxiliary for the first part of the sentence, while essere<\/em> is used as an auxiliary in the second part. You can also use avere<\/em> in the same way. For example:<\/p>\n Noi stavamo guardando<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0“L’Annunciazione” di Da Vinci<\/em> quando Giorgio ha detto \u00abChe bel dipinto!\u00bb.<\/em> <\/em>\u2014\u00a0We were looking<\/strong> at “The Annunciation” of Da Vinci when Giorgio said: \u201cWhat a beautiful painting!\u201d<\/p>\n Here’s a recap of\u00a0stare<\/em> in its past imperfect form to make it easier to build this tense:<\/p>\n Io stavo<\/strong> <\/em>(I was) Tu stavi<\/strong> <\/em>(You were) \u2014 singular Lui stava<\/strong> <\/em>(He was) Lei stava<\/strong> <\/em>(She was)<\/p>\n Noi stavamo<\/strong> <\/em>(We were) Voi stavate<\/strong> <\/em>(You were) \u2014 plural Essi\u00a0stavano<\/strong> <\/em>(They were) Here’s a more in-depth article on how to use stare <\/em><\/a>in general.<\/em><\/p>\n To summarize:<\/strong><\/p>\n The past continuous tense uses\u00a0stare<\/em> as an auxiliary in its past imperfect form along with a gerund. Here’s the formula:<\/p>\n subject + auxiliary stare<\/em> in the past imperfect form + gerund form of the verb + rest of sentence<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Avere, essere <\/em>and stare <\/em>make up the bedrock of the Italian language. Often, when beginners learn Italian, they learn how to use the past and continuous tenses without really thinking about all the ways that avere, essere<\/em> and stare<\/em> \u201chelp out.\u201d<\/p>\n You may also not have thought much about the role these words play as helpers. By drawing attention to these verbs as auxiliaries, you should be able to better understand how they give meaning to sentences.<\/p>\n And if you want to see more examples of these verbs in action, the language learning platform FluentU<\/a> can help.<\/p>\n FluentU<\/strong> takes authentic videos\u2014like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks\u2014and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.<\/p>\r\n <\/p>\r\n You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app<\/a> or Android app.<\/a><\/p>\r\nWhat Is an Auxiliary Verb?<\/h2>\n
Auxiliary Verbs in English<\/h3>\n
Meet the Italian Auxiliary Verbs: Essere,<\/em> Avere <\/em>and Stare<\/em><\/h3>\n
When Do We Use Auxiliary Verbs in Italian?<\/h3>\n
When Helping Verbs Don\u2019t Act as Helpers<\/h3>\n
Using Avere<\/em> in the Past Perfect Tense<\/h2>\n
Using\u00a0Essere<\/em> in the Past Perfect Tense<\/h2>\n
Using the Past Perfect Tense With Reflexive Verbs<\/h2>\n
Using\u00a0Stare<\/em> in the Present Continuous Tense<\/h2>\n
Using Stare<\/em> in the Past Continuous Tense<\/h2>\n
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