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In Italian, if you look in a grammar book, there are a lot of tenses to talk about the past.
Here we are going to look at the most important and most used - the passato prossimo (near past).

This tense can be used in most situations, whether recently or quite a long time ago.
An example using ’see’ - ho visto, translates as I saw or I have seen.
An example using ‘go’ - sono andato, translates as I went or I have gone

The verb consists of two parts - the auxiliary and the past participle.
Most verbs use the auxiliary have - avere - but some use the auxiliary be - essere.
Remember to decline (change) the auxiliary depending on the person speaking.

The verb avere declines like this:
ho - I have
hai - you have
ha - he/she/it has
abbiamo - we have
avete - you have (pl)
hanno - they have
Then add the past participle of the verb, e.g. visto (seen), preso (taken) or mangiato (eaten)      EXERCISE

The verb essere declines like this:
sono - I am
sei - you are
è - he/she/it is
siamo - we are
siete - you are (pl)
sono - they are
Then add the past participle of the verb, eg andato (went/gone), stato (been), or arrivato (arrived).
Here the participle has to agree with the subject, depending on whether it is masculine, feminine, singular or plural. Use -o, -a, i, or -e accordingly.                                       EXERCISE

Let’s translate some examples:
Today we walked in the park - Oggi abbiamo caminato nel parco
You haven’t bought a drink - Non hai comperato una bevanda
They left at 9 o’ clock - Sono partiti alle 9.