The compound tenses (i tempi composti) are verb tenses that consist of two words, such as the passato prossimo (present perfect). Both the verbs essere and avere act as helping verbs in compound tense formations. For example: io sono stato (I was) and ho avuto (I had).

Present Perfect with Avere

In general, transitive verbs (verbs that carry over an action from the subject to the direct object) are conjugated with avere as in the following example:

Il pilota ha pilotato l