Italian Compound Tenses

Italian features a set of compound tenses, based either on avere (to have) or essere (to be). The three compound tenses are:

English tense Italian Tense English Italian
Recent Past Passato Prossimo have done ho fatto
Recent Pluperfect Trapassato Prossimo had done(*) avevo fatto
Remote Pluperfect Trapassato Remoto had done ebbi fatto
Future
Perfect		 Futuro Anteriore will have done avrò fatto

The choice of whether to use avere or essere depends on the type of verb:

● Non-reflexive transitive verbs (i.e. verbs that take a direct object) use avere
● Intransitive verbs (verbs that do not take a direct object), verbs of motion, and reflexive verbs (even if those verbs are based on transitive verbs) take essere

(*) The Trapassato Prossimo (Recent Pluperfect) and the Trapassato Remoto (Remote Pluperfect) are separate tenses in Italian though not in English.

More:
- Compound Tenses

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