Past Tenses in Italian

The past is expressed by THREE basic tenses.

• Passato Prossimo

• Imperfetto

• Passato Remoto

Good news. 
We will work only on the first two, Passato Prossimo and Imperfetto. REMEMBER THESE NAMES

Passato remoto is primarily a "literary" tense in that it is used in written  formal narrative texts.

Passato Prossimo

Passato prossimo is a compound tense, similar in structure to the English Present Perfect.

Ex.: to love, I HAVE LOVED

This tense combines the
PRESENT TENSE of TO HAVE   +  PAST PARTICIPLE of the VERB.

In this position,  TO HAVE has the function of AUXILIARY verb.
 

REMEMBER: AUXILIARY  +  PAST PARTICIPLE
==============================================================

The same thing -- roughly -- happens in Italian:

PRESENT TENSE OF EITHER AVERE (OR ESSERE: we will see this later) is followed by the verb's PAST PARTICIPLE.

Ex.: amare, IO HO AMATO.
       andare, IO SONO ANDATO

We will see later which verbs take AVERE and which take ESSERE.
When Avere and Essere are used in a compound tense, they are called 'AUXILIARY' verbs.

The PASSATO PROSSIMO translates both the PRESENT PERFECT and the PRETERITE:

Io ho studiato = I studied, I have studied

Hanno parlato = they spoke, they have spoken

Abbiamo guardato = we watched, we have watched

Ha visto = s/he saw, s/he has seen

THAT'S IT

So, remember:

start with the subject and the form of AVERE,
add the PAST PARTICIPLE of whatever verb you want to use.

BTW:
the past participle of AVERE IS AVUTO

 Therefore:  I HAD => Io ho avuto