Breakdown of Ho già mangiato questo formaggio.
questo
this (masculine)
avere
to have
mangiare
to eat
il formaggio
the cheese
già
already
Questions & Answers about Ho già mangiato questo formaggio.
How do we form the past tense in this sentence?
This sentence uses the passato prossimo, which is the most common past tense in Italian. It is made of two parts: a helping verb (here, ho) and a past participle (here, mangiato). To make the past participle of a regular -are verb like mangiare, you drop the -are and add -ato.
Does the word già always go in between the two verb parts?
Yes! Just like in English, common short adverbs like già, sempre, and mai are usually placed right between the helping verb (ho) and the past participle (mangiato).
If a woman is speaking, does mangiato change to mangiata?
No, it stays mangiato. When the passato prossimo uses the helping verb avere, the past participle does not change to match the gender or number of the speaker. It will always end in -o.
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