Learn Italian: Ieri abbiamo salutato i nostri vicini. - Yesterday we greeted our neighbors.

Ieri abbiamo salutato i nostri vicini.

Yesterday we greeted our neighbors.

Breakdown of Ieri abbiamo salutato i nostri vicini.

Questions & Answers about Ieri abbiamo salutato i nostri vicini.

Why are there two words for "greeted" (abbiamo salutato)?

In Italian, the spoken past tense (the passato prossimo) is built using two parts, much like "we have greeted" in English. Here, abbiamo is the helper verb (we have) and salutato is the past participle (greeted).

Since "we" is plural, shouldn't the ending of salutato change to match?

Not in this case! When building the past tense with the helper verb avere (to have), the past participle usually stays in its default form ending in -o. It does not change to match the subject doing the action.

Why is there an i before nostri vicini? Doesn't that mean "the our neighbors"?

Yes, literally it means "the our neighbors." Unlike English, Italian almost always requires a definite article (like il, la, or i) before a possessive word. Since vicini is masculine plural, you need the masculine plural article i.

Is salutare a false friend? It looks like "to salute."

It can mean "to salute" in a military context, but in everyday Italian, salutare just means "to greet" or "to say hello" (or goodbye). So abbiamo salutato simply means "we greeted" or "we said hello to."