Avere means “to have.” It is also the auxiliary that most Italian verbs use in compound tenses, so it appears in almost every sentence about the past: ho mangiato, abbiamo visto, hanno capito.
Infinitive
avere
English
to have
Auxiliary
avere
Past participle
avuto
Gerund
avendo
Core irregular verb: the present is where avere is irregular, with a silent h in ho, hai, ha and hanno and the stem abbi- in noi abbiamo. Voi avete is regular. The present subjunctive and most of the imperative are built on abbi-: abbia, abbiamo, abbiate, abbiano, and the tu command abbi. The future and conditional drop the e of the infinitive: avrò, avrai, avrei, avremmo. The passato remoto is mixed, with ebbi, ebbe and ebbero beside regular avesti, avemmo and aveste. The imperfect (avevo) and the past participle (avuto) are regular.
Avere covers possession (ho una bici), relationships (hai fratelli?) and appointments (ho una riunione alle dieci), but it also does work that English gives to “to be.” You have your age (ho trent'anni), and you have physical states and feelings: avere fame, sete, caldo, freddo, sonno, paura, fretta. Needs and wishes go the same way: avere bisogno di, avere voglia di. As an auxiliary, avere combines with the past participle of transitive verbs and of many intransitive verbs of activity, such as dormire and lavorare. The rule for choosing between avere and essere has its own grammar page; this page shows the forms and the most common uses.
Avere is its own auxiliary: ho avuto, avevamo avuto, avrei avuto. When avere is the auxiliary of another verb, the participle does not agree with the subject: Maria ha mangiato, le ragazze hanno dormito. It must agree with a direct object pronoun (lo, la, li, le) placed before it: la torta l'ho comprata io, le chiavi le ho perse. With ne, the participle usually agrees with the quantity: le mele? Ne ho mangiate tre.
Avere in context
Presente:Ho fame, mangiamo qualcosa? (I'm hungry, shall we eat something?)
Presente:Quanti anni hai? (How old are you?)
Passato Prossimo:Abbiamo avuto un problema con la macchina. (We had a problem with the car.)
Imperfetto:Avevo paura del buio quando ero piccolo. (I was afraid of the dark when I was little.)
Futuro Semplice:Domani avrò più tempo per parlarne. (Tomorrow I'll have more time to talk about it.)
Congiuntivo Presente:Spero che tu abbia ragione. (I hope you're right.)
Condizionale Presente:Avresti una penna da prestarmi? (Would you have a pen you could lend me?)
Imperativo:Abbi pazienza, arrivo subito. (Be patient, I'll be right there.)
Common expressions with avere
avere fame / avere sete: to be hungry / to be thirsty. Fame and sete are nouns, so “very” is molta: ho molta fame.
avere bisogno di: to need. Ho bisogno di aiuto, ho bisogno di dormire. The di is required.
avere ragione / avere torto: to be right / to be wrong
avere voglia di: to feel like, to want. Ho voglia di un gelato, non ho voglia di uscire.
avere paura di: to be afraid of
avercela con qualcuno: to be angry with someone, to have it in for someone. The pronouns ce and la stay fixed: ce l'hai con me? (are you angry with me?).
Common mistakes
Ho freddo, chiudi la finestra., not Sono freddo, chiudi la finestra. (I'm cold, close the window.). For how your body feels, Italian uses avere with a noun: ho freddo, ho caldo, ho sonno. Sono freddo describes your personality, as in “I am a cold person.”
Ho bisogno di un caffè., not Ho bisogno un caffè. (I need a coffee.). Bisogno is a noun (“need”), so it links to what you need with di, before a noun and before an infinitive: ho bisogno di riposare.
Le foto? Le ho viste ieri., not Le foto? Le ho visto ieri. (The photos? I saw them yesterday.). With avere, the participle normally stays in -o, but it agrees with a direct object pronoun that comes before it. Le is feminine plural, so visto becomes viste.
Avere: ho avuto, hai avuto, abbiamo avuto. The participle avuto stays the same for every subject.
What is the past participle of avere?
Avuto. It is regular, built like any -ERE participle (credere, creduto). Ho avuto often means “I got” or “I received”: ho avuto una buona notizia.
Is avere irregular?
Yes. The present (ho, hai, ha, abbiamo, hanno), the present subjunctive (abbia), the future (avrò) and three forms of the passato remoto (ebbi, ebbe, ebbero) are irregular. The imperfect, the imperfect subjunctive (avessi) and the participle follow the regular -ERE pattern.
Why do ho, hai, ha and hanno have an h?
The h is silent. It exists only in writing, to separate the verb from words that sound the same: ho and o (or), hai and ai (to the), ha and a (to), hanno and anno (year). The other forms, such as abbiamo and avete, need no h because nothing sounds like them.
Which verbs take avere in the passato prossimo?
All transitive verbs, the ones that can take a direct object (ho letto un libro, abbiamo comprato il pane), and many intransitive verbs of activity: ho dormito, ho camminato, ho lavorato, ho riso. Verbs of movement and change of state, and all reflexive verbs, take essere. The full rule is on the essere vs avere grammar page.