Participio Passato: Irregular Full List

The irregular past participles are the most concentrated piece of brute memorization in Italian verb morphology. There is no shortcut around them — but there is good news: they cluster into a small number of recognizable families. If you learn the families rather than the individual verbs, the load shrinks dramatically. Once you can hear that -ndere verbs go to -so (prendere → preso, scendere → sceso, accendere → acceso) and that -rire verbs often go to -rto (aprire → aperto, offrire → offerto), the irregulars start to feel less like a list and more like a system.

This page is the comprehensive reference. Use the family tables as your primary learning tool; the lookup at the end is for emergencies.

The -tto family

Verbs whose stem ends in -gg- or whose Latin root contained -ct- typically end up with the geminate -tto in the participle. This is one of the most consistent and learnable groups.

The -so family

The most productive irregular pattern in -ere verbs. Verbs whose stem ends in -d- (especially -nd-) almost universally go to -so in the participle. Once you've learned a few, the pattern essentially predicts itself.

The -sto family

A small but extremely high-frequency family. Most verbs here have stems that don't fit the other patterns naturally and end up with -sto.

Both vedere forms (visto, veduto) and both perdere forms (perso, perduto) are accepted in modern Italian. Visto and perso are by far the more common in everyday speech; veduto and perduto are (literary) or used as full-fledged adjectives (un'occasione perduta, un mondo perduto).

The -rto family

Concentrated in the -ire class. Verbs ending in -rire (and a couple in -rrire) very often go to -rto.

The -lto family

Verbs whose stem contains -gli- (the palatal "lli" sound) tend to drop into -lto. A small but consistent group.

The -nto family

Verbs whose stem ends in -gn- or -ng- (especially the latter) typically go to -nto.

The miscellaneous essentials

A handful of extremely high-frequency verbs don't fit any of the families above. They have to be learned individually.

A note on -uto vs irregular doublets

A handful of verbs accept both a regular -uto form and an irregular form. Both are correct Italian, but they often differ in register and frequency.

For everyday speech, default to visto and perso. Save veduto and perduto for elevated prose or fixed expressions like a perdita d'occhio (as far as the eye can see), un'occasione perduta (a lost opportunity).

Quick alphabetical lookup

Use this when you need to confirm a single form fast.

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

The irregulars feel like a long list because they are — but they cluster into seven recognizable families: -tto, -so, -sto, -rto, -lto, -nto, and a small set of true miscellaneous (essere, stare, bere, nascere, vivere, piacere). Learn them family by family and the load shrinks fast.

Three priorities for memorization:

1. Top 20 by frequency: fatto, detto, letto, scritto, preso, messo, visto, chiuso, aperto, deciso, chiesto, risposto, rimasto, venuto, stato, bevuto, nato, morto, vissuto, perso. These cover most of what you'll say in everyday Italian.

2. Compounds inherit: if you know mettere → messo, you also know permesso, promesso, ammesso, smesso, scommesso. If you know prendere → preso, you have appreso, compreso, ripreso, sorpreso.

3. When in doubt, treat -ere as irregular and check. The -uto regular form is the minority for high-frequency verbs.

For the productive side of all these forms — using them as adjectives — see past participle as adjective. For the literary compressed-clause use, see absolute constructions.