{"id":2620,"date":"2012-11-09T10:28:49","date_gmt":"2012-11-09T10:28:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=2620"},"modified":"2018-02-07T11:43:55","modified_gmt":"2018-02-07T10:43:55","slug":"il-gerundio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/il-gerundio\/","title":{"rendered":"Il Gerundio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Il gerundio<\/strong> (the gerund) refers to the use of a verb in its \u2013ing<\/span> form. For example \u2018I am writing<\/span>\u2019, I was thinking<\/span>, he is talking<\/span>, etc. In Italian il gerundio<\/strong> (the gerund) is characterised by the following endings:<\/p>\n

Verbs ending in \u2013are = ando<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 e.g. mangiando<\/strong> (eating) from the verb mangiare<\/strong> (to eat)<\/p>\n

Verbs ending in \u2013ere and \u2013ire = endo<\/span><\/strong> e.g. cuocendo<\/strong> (cooking) from the verb cuocere<\/strong> (to cook), pulendo<\/strong> (cleaning) from the verb pulire<\/strong> (to clean).<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s look at the most common uses of il gerundio<\/strong> in Italian:<\/p>\n

\n

\n

1. Presente Continuato <\/span><\/strong>(Present Continuous)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The gerund is used with the present tense of verb stare <\/strong>(to be\/to stay) to form the present continuous:<\/p>\n

stiamo mangiando <\/strong>= we are eating<\/p>\n

Giovanni sta riposando<\/strong> = Giovanni is resting<\/p>\n

cosa state facendo? <\/strong>= what are you doing? (you plural)<\/p>\n

stai lavorando?<\/strong> = are you working? (you singular, informal)<\/p>\n

sto pulendo le finestre<\/strong> = I\u2019m cleaning the windows<\/p>\n

le patate stanno cuocendo <\/strong>= the potatoes are cooking<\/p>\n

N.B. The present continuous is not considered an official Italian tense, and when I was a child we were not allowed to use it in writing, we had to use the simple present instead. Nowadays the present continuous is interchangeable with the simple present to describe what is happening in this exact moment, e.g.:<\/p>\n

cosa state facendo <\/strong>or cosa fate? <\/strong>= what are you doing? (literally: what do you do?)<\/p>\n

stai lavorando? <\/strong>or lavori?<\/strong> = are you working? (literally: you work?)<\/p>\n

sto pulendo le finestre <\/strong>or pulisco le finestre<\/strong> = I\u2019m cleaning the windows (literally: I clean the windows)<\/p>\n

\n

2. Passato Continuato <\/span><\/strong>(Past Continuous)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

To use the gerund in the past we need the imperfect tense of the verb stare <\/strong><\/strong>(to be\/to stay). This form is known as the past continuous:<\/p>\n

stavamo mangiando <\/strong>= we were eating<\/p>\n

Giovanni stava riposando<\/strong> = Giovanni was resting<\/p>\n

cosa stavate facendo? <\/strong>= what were you doing? (you plural)<\/p>\n

stavi lavorando?<\/strong> = were you working? (you singular, informal)<\/p>\n

stavo pulendo le finestre<\/strong> = I was cleaning the windows<\/p>\n

le patate stavano cuocendo <\/strong>= the potatoes were cooking<\/p>\n

\n

3.<\/strong> The gerund can be used on its own to express when or how something happens:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

ieri, tornando a casa, ho incontrato Maria<\/strong> = yesterday, when I was going back home, I met Maria<\/p>\n

entrando in cucina ho sentito odore di bruciato<\/strong> = when I was entering the kitchen I smelt something burning<\/p>\n

sbagliando s\u2019impara<\/strong> = one learns by making mistakes<\/p>\n

leggendo attentamente mi sono accorta che mancava una parola<\/strong> = reading carefully I realised that a word was missing<\/p>\n

volendo, potremmo fermarci a Milano <\/strong>= if we wanted , we could stop in Milan (literally: \u2018wanting to, we could stop in Milan\u2019)<\/p>\n

ripensandoci, sarebbe meglio partire presto <\/strong>= thinking about it again, it would be better to leave early<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Il gerundio (the gerund) refers to the use of a verb in its \u2013ing form. For example \u2018I am writing\u2019, I was thinking, he is talking, etc. In Italian il gerundio (the gerund) is characterised by the following endings: Verbs ending in \u2013are = ando\u00a0 e.g. mangiando (eating) from the verb mangiare (to eat) Verbs…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[229194,229193,229192],"class_list":["post-2620","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-grammar","tag-ing-ending-in-italian","tag-il-gerundio","tag-using-the-gerund-in-italian"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2620"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15651,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620\/revisions\/15651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}