Breakdown of Ieri ho telefonato a Marco.
avere
to have
Marco
Marco
a
to / at
ieri
yesterday
telefonare
to telephone
Questions & Answers about Ieri ho telefonato a Marco.
Why are there two words (ho telefonato) to say "called"?
To talk about the past in Italian, you usually use a tense called the passato prossimo. It is built with two parts: a helping verb (here, ho, meaning "I have") and a past participle (telefonato). So you are literally saying "I have telephoned".
How do we get the word telefonato?
It comes from the verb telefonare (to call). For regular verbs ending in -are, you make the past participle by dropping the -are and adding -ato.
Why is there an 'a' before Marco? I wouldn't say "I called to Marco" in English.
Why isn't the word io (I) at the beginning of the sentence?
In Italian, you usually leave out subject pronouns like io because the verb form already tells you who is doing the action. The helping verb ho only ever goes with "I", so the subject is completely clear without it.
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