The Passato Prossimo is a tense used to express past finished events and actions. As you can see, the Passato Prossimo is composed by the auxiliary verb to have or to be and the Past Participle of the main verb.

How do you know when to use passato prossimo or imperfetto?

We use the passato prossimo and the imperfetto to describe two past actions happening at the same time in the past. In other words, we use the imperfetto to talk about what we were doing when something occurred and interrupted what we were doing.

How do you use passato prossimo in Italian?

The present perfect (passato prossimo) is used when you are referring to actions completed in the past. Basically, it is one of the tenses we use when we talk about actions, events and facts that happened in the past, but not long ago.