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Italian Grammar Lessons: The Perfect Participle

The perfect participle is used in clauses which refer to an action taking place before another, in the present, past or future.

It’s formed using the present participle of ‘essere’ or ‘avere’ and the past participle of the main verb. For example:

Avendo studiato matematica, so risolvere le equazioni.
Avendo studiato molto, troverò pochi problemi durante l’esame.
Avendo studiato italiano, ho saputo chiedere informazioni ai passanti.

If the perfect participle is used with a direct pronoun, the past participle needs to agree with the gender of the pronoun. For example:

Avendola aiutata a studiare, Penelope mi ha ringraziato con una lettera.
Avendolo lasciato a casa con la babysitter, mio figlio farà i compiti per domani.
Avendole viste al parco, Federica e sua sorella non sono andate a scuola questa mattina.

The present participle and the perfect participle can, at times, seem very similar in their meaning. For example:

Essendo malata, non è andata a scuola.
(The present participle clause here has the meaning of ‘siccome’.)

Pur avendo studiato molto, non ha passato il test di verifica questa settimana.
(The past particple clause, preceeded with ‘pur’, has the meaning of ‘anche se’.)

Back to Italian lesson on: present participle

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