Ho perso il passaporto. L'hai visto?

Questions & Answers about Ho perso il passaporto. L'hai visto?

What does the L' stand for in L'hai visto?
The L' is the direct object pronoun lo (it), replacing the masculine singular il passaporto. When lo or la comes before a form of avere that starts with an 'h' (which is silent) and a vowel, the 'o' or 'a' is dropped and replaced with an apostrophe.
Why does visto end in -o here? Does it have to match the pronoun?
Yes! When you use the direct object pronouns lo, la, li, or le before a verb in the passato prossimo, the past participle must match the pronoun in gender and number. Since lo (hidden in L') is masculine singular, visto takes the masculine singular ending -o.
What if I had lost a feminine object, like la chiave (the key)? How would the second sentence change?
It would become L'hai vista?. The pronoun la also shortens to L' before hai, but the past participle must now end in -a (vista) to agree with the feminine singular pronoun. This agreement is mandatory when using these pronouns!
Why isn't it Hai visto lo?
In Italian, direct object pronouns like lo must go immediately before the conjugated verb. You cannot put them after the verb in a normal past tense sentence like this one.
Is perso a regular past participle?
No, it is the irregular past participle of the verb perdere (to lose). A regular verb ending in -ere would usually end in -uto, so this is an irregular form you simply have to memorize.

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