Italian · Chapter 8 · Lesson 14 · Grammar primer
Past participles: fatto, detto, visto
Three predictable endings, and the irregular ones are exactly the verbs you use every day.
The short version
Irregular participles come in five shapes
Italian's irregular past participles look random until you sort them by ending. Most land on -tto (fatto, detto, scritto), -sto (visto, chiesto), -so (preso, messo, perso) or -rto (aperto, morto). Verbs built on the same stem share the shape, so mettere and promettere both give -messo.
Ho fatto tutto e ho detto la verità.
After avere, a pronoun makes the participle agree
With avere the participle normally stays in -o whoever is speaking. The exception is a direct object pronoun in front: lo, la, li or le makes the participle agree with it. So I saw her is l'ho vista, and I took them (the keys) is le ho prese.
Hai visto la macchina? Sì, l'ho vista.
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