To Have and Have Not: The Verb Avere

Part 1: Look It Up

More of this Feature • I Tempi Composti • Idiomatic Expressions • Workbook Exercises • Verb Table: Part One • Verb Table: Part Two    Join the Discussion "Can someone explain the use of il passato prossimo and i verbi riflessivi?" HEGE5    Related Resources • 1001 Italian Verbs • Italian Verbs For Beginners • First Conjugation Italian Verbs • To Be, or Not To Be? The Verb Essere    Elsewhere on the Web • Coniuga I Verbi • Coniugatore di Verbi • Il Sito Del Verbo

Avere: 1 to have (got): Ho molti amici. I have many friends; 2 to have, to own: Ha una villa in campagna. He has a house in the country; 3 to have on, to wear: Maria ha un vestito nuovo. Maria has on a new dress.

Like the verb essere (to be), avere is used in myriad grammatical and linguistic situations. Learning the many conjugations and uses of the verb is crucial to the study of the Italian language.

Avere is an irregular verb (un verbo irregolare); it does not follow a predictable pattern of conjugation. The present tense (il presente) of avere is as follows:

	Singolare		Plurale
(io)	ho I have	(noi)	abbiamo we have
(tu)	hai you have (fam.)	(voi)	avete you have (fam.)
(lui)	ha you have	(loro)	hanno they have

Interrogative Verbs
To make a verb interrogative (I have —do I have?), add a question mark to the end of the sentence in writing. In speaking, the pitch of the voice rises at the end of the sentence.

Avete un buon lavoro.
You have a good job.

Avete un buon lavoro?
Do you have a good job?

If a subject (noun or pronoun) is expressed in the interrogative, it can:
—stay at the beginning of the sentence, before the verb
—go to the end of the sentence
—less frequently go immediately after the verb

Does Mario have an uncle?
Mario ha uno zio?
Ha uno zio Mario?
Ha Mario uno zio?

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