Verb Avere

Verb Avere

Avere: 1 to have (got): Ho molti amici. I have many friends; 2 to have, to own: Ha una villa in campagna. He has a house in the country; 3 to have on, to wear: Maria ha un vestito nuovo. Maria has on a new dress.

Like the verb essere (to be), avere is used in myriad grammatical and linguistic situations. Learning the many conjugations and uses of the verb is crucial to the study of the Italian language.

Avere is an irregular verb (un verbo irregolare); it does not follow a predictable pattern of conjugation. The present tense (il presente) of avere is as follows:

Singolare	Plurale
(io) ho I have	(noi) abbiamo we have
(tu) hai you have (fam.)	(voi) avete you have (fam.)
(lui) ha you have	(loro) hanno they have

# Interrogative Verbs To make a verb interrogative (I have —do I have?), add a question mark to the end of the sentence in writing. In speaking, the pitch of the voice rises at the end of the sentence.

Avete un buon lavoro. You have a good job.
Avete un buon lavoro? Do you have a good job?

# If a subject (noun or pronoun) is expressed in the interrogative, it can:
— stay at the beginning of the sentence, before the verb
— go to the end of the sentence
— less frequently go immediately after the verb

Does Mario have an uncle?
Mario ha uno zio?
Ha uno zio Mario?
Ha Mario uno zio?

# The compound tenses are verb tenses, such as the passato prossimo, that consist of two words. The appropriate tense of avere or essere (called the auxiliary or helping verbs) and the past participle of the target verb forms the verb phrase.

# In general, transitive verbs are conjugated with avere. Transitive verbs express an action that carries over from the subject to the direct object: The teacher explains the lesson.

# The past participle is invariable when the passato prossimo is constructed with avere.

Oggi Anna non lavora perchè ha lavorato ieri. Today Anna isn't working because she worked yesterday.
The others worked yesterday too. Anche gli altri hanno lavorato ieri.

# When the past participle of a verb conjugated with avere is preceded by the third person direct object pronouns lo, la, le, or li, the past participle agrees with the preceding direct object pronoun in gender and number. The past participle may agree with the direct object pronouns mi, ti, ci, and vi when these precede the verb, but the agreement is not mandatory.

Ho mangiato la frittata. I have eaten the omelette.
L’ho mangiata. I have eaten it.
Ho comprato il sale e il pepe. I bought the salt and pepper.
Li ho comprati. I bought them.
Ci hanno visto (visti). They saw us.

# In negative sentences, non is placed before the auxiliary verb.

Molti non hanno pagato. Many didn't pay.
Hai ordinato un aperitivo? Did you order an aperitif?
No, non ho ordinato un aperitivo. No, I didn't order an aperitif.

# Avere is used in many idiomatic expressions (espressioni idiomatiche) that indicate people's feelings or convey physical sensations. They are formed with avere + noun. The equivalent English expressions are generally formed with to be + adjective. Here are a few common ones:

avere fame	to be hungry
avere sete	to be thirsty
avere sonno	to be sleepy
avere caldo	to be warm (hot)
avere freddo	to be cold
avere fretta	to be in a hurry
avere paura	to be afraid
avere bisogno di	to need, have need of
avere voglia di	to want, to feel like
avercela con	to have it in for
avere a che fare con	to deal with
aversela a male	to feel bad

Michele ha sempre fretta. Michael is always in a hurry.

Ho caldo. Ho voglia di un gelato. I'm hot. I feel like having ice cream.
Non capisco proprio perchè ce l'hai con me. I really don't understand why you have it in for me.
È inutile che io le parli: vuole avere a che fare solo con te. It's no use my talking to her; she only wants to deal with you.
Non avertela a male se non ti invito a quella cena. Ho già troppi invitati. Don't feel bad if I don't invite you to that dinner. I have too many guest already.

# The verb avere is also used to indicate age:

avere + number + anni
to be ...years old

Quanti anni hai? How old are you?
Ho diciotto anni. I'm eighteen.
Questo cane è vecchio, ha dieci anni. This dog is old, it is ten years old.

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