Irregular Past Participles in Italian

Irregular Past Participles in Italian You’ve learned that if you want to talk about the past in Italian, you’re going to have to learn the past participles of each verb. Lucky for you, a lot of verbs in Italian are considered regular and therefore have formulaic endings, like how regular -are verbs end in -ato. For example, parlare → parlato; andare → andato; camminare → camminato; guardare → guardato. While you do get off easy when it comes to those regular verbs, many verbs in Italian, especially the ones ending in -ere, have irregular past participles. Below you’ll find a list of some of the most common infinitives as well as their past participle forms. Plus, you’ll also see a sample variation, like â€Å"riaccendere† being a variant of â€Å"accendere†. Irregular Past Participles INFINITIVE PAST PARTICIPLE VARIATION ON THE INFINITIVE PAST PARTICIPLE accendere acceso riaccendere riacceso chiedere chiesto richiedere richiesto chiudere chiuso racchiudere racchiuso cogliere colto raccogliere raccolto cuocere cotto stracuocere stracotto dire detto predire predetto dividere diviso condividere condiviso fare fatto strafare strafatto leggere letto rileggere riletto porre posto frapporre frapposto reggere retto correggere corretto rispondere risposto corrispondere corrisposto rompere rotto corrompere corrotto scegliere scelto prescegliere prescelto scrivere scritto riscrivere riscritto trarre tratto ritrarre ritratto vincere vinto convincere convinto volgere volto rivolgere rivolto Gli esempi: Ci hanno chiesto aiuto. - They asked us for help.Non ha chiuso la porta. - She didn’t close the door.Che hai detto? - What did you say?Avete letto quel libro? - Have you all read that book?Ti ho scritto una lettera ieri sera. - I wrote you a letter last night.Non mi ha ancora risposto. - He hasn’t answered me yet.Scusa, abbiamo rotto i bicchieri. - Sorry, we broke the glasses.Hanno vinto il gioco! - They won the game! Other common irregular past participles: Bere (to drink) → Bevuto (drank)Dare (to give) → Dato (gave)Mettere (to put) → Messo (put)Morire (to die) → Morto (died)Nascere (to be born) → Nato (born)Perdere (to lose) → Perso (lost)Ridere (to laugh) → Riso (laughed)Rimanere (to remain) → Rimasto (remained)Scendere (to descend, to go down) →   Sceso (descended)Vivere (to live) → Vissuto (lived) Is there still a pattern? Even though these past participles are considered irregular, many of them have repeating patterns. For example, the past participle of any verb that ends in -mettere will also end in -messo. For example: Ammettere (to admit, to allow in, to let in) becomes ammessoCommettere (to commit, to commission) becomes commessoDimettere (to dismiss, to remove) becomes dimessoOmettere (to omit, to leave out) becomes omessoPromettere (to promise) becomes promessoRimettere (to remit, to refer) becomes rimesso It will take some practice, but once you recognize the patterns and commit others to memory, it will be a lot easier to talk about the past with confidence. If you need to review how to form the past tense (il passato prossimo), take a look at this article here and then review this article on auxiliary verbs as well.