What is a passato prossimo in italian?

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martox45

It's a verbal tense and it's composed by the verb at the past participle and the auxiliary (essere or avere) at the present tense. Ex: Sono andato - ho cantato -
We basically use passato prossimo when the action is finished but not longtime ago (however even months) and it has still effects at present.
It differs from passato remoto since this tense is mainly used to refer ourselves to very past times (years ago) with finished actions, without current effects-

Here's a link for a better explanation and examples :
http://www.oneworlditaliano.com/english/italian-grammar/italian-perfect-tense.htm

ADDED
There's no correspondence with English tenses as suggested by here below answerer.
In English "yesterday I went to school" and "yesterday I've gone to school" both translate into Italian "Ieri sono andato a scuola". None would say "ieri andai a scuola" though could be in some way grammatically correct

chercher

I am italian and we use the Passato Prossimo to express something happend a few hours/years ago (this morning, last night, last summer, etc) and the Passato Remoto to express something happend in the very past (many years ago, in the 18th century, etc). Nowadays as the language is changing we are going to use the Passato Prossimo to express every kind of Past and we tent to not use the Passato Remoto anymore. So we say: "Questa mattina ho mangiato un cornetto" and "tanti anni fa mangiai un cornetto".

Frederico Ferrari

The passato prossimoā€”grammatically referred to as the present perfectā€”is a compound tense (tempo composto) that expresses a fact or action that happened in the recent past or that occurred long ago but still has ties to the present.

Here are a few examples of how the passato prossimo appears in Italian:

Ho appena chiamato. (I just called.)
Mi sono iscritto all'universitĆ quattro anni fa. (I entered the university four years ago.)
Questa mattina sono uscito presto. (This morning I left early.)
Il Petrarca ha scritto sonetti immortali. (Petrarca wrote enduring sonnets.)

The following table lists some adverbial expressions that are often used with the passato prossimo:

COMMON ADVERBIAL EXPRESSIONS
ieri yesterday
ieri pomeriggio yesterday afternoon
ieri sera last night
il mese scorso last month
l'altro giorno the other day
stamani this morning
tre giorni fa three days ago

Elena A

It's anothere tense for past: in english you would say "yesterday i went to school" and that would be simple past; but if you'd say "yesterday i have gone to school" then you'd be using a passato prossimo.
hope I helped you!

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