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Verbi Italiani - Presente Progressivo - The Present Progressive Tense - 7/24/2025

Presente Progressivo - The Present Progressive Tense Presente Progressivo - The present progressive tense in Italian is called “presente progressivo.” It is used to describe an action taking place in the here and now. “What are you doing?” “I am reading a book.” In Italian: “Cosa stai facendo?” “Sto leggendo un libro.” “Stai” and “sto” are both present tense (presente in italiano) conjugations of the Italian verb “stare”. “Facendo” and “leggendo” are what is called the gerund (in English) or il gerundio (in italiano). Those two components: the appropriate conjugation of stare, plus the gerund, make up the presente progressivo tense. Note that there is a subtle but technical difference: “What are you doing today?” “Today I’m studying Italian,” In Italian: “Cosa fai oggi?” “Oggi studio italiano”. Or “Are you taking a walk today?” “I walk every day.” Again, in Italian: “Oggi fai una passeggiata?” “Cammino ogni giorno.” These examples show verbs used in present tense to describe actions o...
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Verbi Italiani, Futuro Semplice (Futuro) - The Future Tense - 7/19/2025

Verbi Italiani, Futuro Semplice (Futuro) - The Future Tense Futuro - The Italian future tense in Italian is called “futuro” or “futuro semplice” (simple future). To be technical, futuro semplice is more accurate, commonly used “futuro” is correct. Discussion of events in the future in the Italian language are different from expressions of future action or events are in English. For example, in English we might say, “Later today, I’m studying Italian,” or “We’re going to Italy next April.” “I’m studying” and “We’re going” in Italian “sto studiano” and “stiamo andando” are present progressive forms, and are NOT used to express action in the future.  
In Italian they sometimes express actions in the very near future using the simple presente tense: “Più tardi oggi studio italiano,” “Later today I am studying Italian” using the present tense or “Più tardi oggi, studierò italiano” using futuro. Actions further in the future, however, such as, “We are going to Italy next April”, are n...
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