How do you use the verb avete in Italian? What does it mean? How do you pronounce it?
In this lesson, we will look at how to use this word with the help of many audio recordings and example sentences. Read on to learn everything you need to know!
How to use avete in Italian
What is avete?
Avete is one of the present tense conjugations of the verb avere, which means to have. To be more precise, it’s the second-person plural present tense conjugation of avere, which is a very irregular verb in Italian and means “you all have”.
Let’s hear how it is pronounced.
Avete
You all have
Its pronunciation is close to ah-VEH-reh. If you have trouble pronouncing Italian sounds, check out the Italian pronunciation guide.
Now, let’s see some example sentences with avere in Italian, before we take a look at how to use the verb avere along with its other present tense conjugations as well.
Title: Italian All-in-One For Dummies
Language: English / Italian
Publisher: For Dummies
Pages: 672
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Avete un accendino?
Do you have a lighter?
Cosa avete fatto l’altra sera?
What did you do the other night?
Avete riportato i libri in biblioteca?
Have you returned the books to the library?
Avete visto i miei occhiali?
Have you seen my glasses?
Now let’s see where avete in Italian comes from.
Usage of avete in Italian
You probably already know that the indicativo presente (present tense) conjugation for the pronoun io adds the ending -o to the root of the verb, or stem (see note for more info).
What’s the stem of a verb?
Italian infinitive verbs end in -ARE, -ERE and -IRE.
Cut off this part and you are left with the root verb.
Examples:
sudare ➡️ sud-
credere ➡️ cred-
dormire ➡️ dorm-
Italian verb endings for each tense are added to these root forms of the verb.
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Now, how would you conjugate the present tense of avere, “to have”?
Remove the infinitive ending -ere and add -o!
Avere… ➡️ Av-… ➡️ Io avo?
You may be surprised to learn that the correct conjugation is actually io ho.
This is because avere is an irregular verb. This is also why we will say avete in Italian, and never avo.
That said, let’s look at the present tense conjugation of avere along with its pronunciation.
Present tense conjugation for avere
| io | ho |
| tu | hai |
| lui, lei | ha |
| noi | abbiamo |
| voi | avete |
| loro | hanno |
For example, you could say…
Abbiamo perso il nostro cane. Ci aiutate a trovarlo?
We have lost our dog. Can you help us find him?
La squadra ha vinto la finale di campionato.
The team has won the championship final.
A casa ho una libreria stracolma di libri.
I have a bookcase overflowing with books at home.
Hai letto la prima pagina del giornale?
Did you read the front page of the newspaper?
Ho 20 anni.
I am 20 years old.
And that’s the end of our lesson on how to use avete in Italian!
What next?
Now that you’ve seen how to use avete in Italian, you might want to keep learning Italian online with these free Italian resources:
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