The compound tenses are verb tenses, such as the passato prossimo, that consist of two words. The appropriate tense of avere or essere (called the auxiliary or helping verbs) and the past participle of the target verb forms the verb phrase.
In general, transitive verbs are conjugated with avere. Transitive verbs express an action that carries over from the subject to the direct object: The teacher explains the lesson.
The past participle is invariable when the passato prossimo is constructed with avere.
Oggi Anna non lavora perchè ha lavorato ieri.
Today Anna isn't working because she worked yesterday.
The others worked yesterday too.
Anche gli altri hanno lavorato ieri.
When the past participle of a verb conjugated with avere is preceded by the third person direct object pronouns lo, la, le, or li, the past participle agrees with the preceding direct object pronoun in gender and number. The past participle may agree with the direct object pronouns mi, ti, ci, and vi when these precede the verb, but the agreement is not mandatory.
Ho mangiato la frittata.
I have eaten the omelette.
L’ho mangiata.
I have eaten it.
Ho comprato il sale e il pepe.
I bought the salt and pepper.
Li ho comprati.
I bought them.
Ci hanno visto (visti).
They saw us.
In negative sentences, non is placed before the auxiliary verb.
Molti non hanno pagato.
Many didn't pay.
Hai ordinato un aperitivo?
Did you order an aperitif?
No, non ho ordinato un aperitivo.
No, I didn't order an aperitif.
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