Learn Italian - Lesson Seven

Lesson Seven - Italian Gerund Imperative and Adverbs

Gerund in Italian

The gerund is easy to form, for (~are) verbs just add~ando to their stem, for (~ere, ~ire) verbs add ~endo to their stem.

Parlare: parlando (talking), credere: credendo (believing), partire: partendo (going).

Present continuous/ Past continuous/ Future continuous can be formed easily with the verb “stare” + verb + gerund.

To form a continuous action you need to add the verb “stare” and not “essere”

Italian Gerund

Present continuous (I’m …ing)

Past continuous (I was ...ing)

Future continuous (I will be ...ing)

sto pensando/ credendo

stai pensando/ credendo

sta pensando/ credendo

stiamo pensando/ credendo

state pensando/ credendo

stanno pensando/ credendo

stavo pensando/ credendo

stavi pensando/ credendo

stava pensando/ credendo

stavamo pensando/ credendo

stavate pensando/ credendo

stavano pensando/ credendo

starò pensando/ credendo

starai pensando/ credendo

starà pensando/ credendo

staremo pensando/ credendo

starete pensando/ credendo

staranno pensando/ credendo

Che cosa stavi pensando? non stavo pensando.(what were you thinking? I wasn’t thinking)

There are however some rare cases where the gerund is irregular like: dire (dicendo), fare (facendo), porre (ponendo), tradurre (traducendo).

Che cosa stai facendo? Sto pensando (what are you doing? I’m thinking).

Italian Imperative

It’s easy to form the imperative especially with “tu” and “Lei”, you just need to switch them in the case of (~are) verbs, for example in the present tense we say:

“tu parli” informal of (you speak) and (Lei parla) formal of (you speak), in the imperative you just need to switch them.

“parla!” means “speak!” informal, “parli!” means “speak!” formal.

For (~ere, ~ire) the affirmative second person singular is identical to the second person singular form of the present tense.

For all conjugations (are/ere/ire), the second person plural (voi) is identical to the second person plural form of the present tense.

Check out the table below; it will explain it all:

Italian Imperative

parlare

vendere

aprire

finire

Lei

noi

voi

parla

parli

parliamo

parlate

vendi

venda

vendiamo

vendete

apri

apra

apriamo

aprite

finisci

finisca

finiamo

finite

Negative commands are usually expressed in Italian with non followed by the infinitive verb. For example:

Don't eat! (non mangiare!)

No smoking! (non fumare!)

Adverbs in Italian (avverbi)

An adjective can be made into an adverb by simply adding -mente to the adjective example: veloce "quick" becomes velocemente "quickly”.

There are exceptions that are easy to understand:

Adding “mente” to adjectives that their feminine singular is ending with “a”, example: lenta "slow" becomes lentamente "slowly".

If an adjective ends in -ale, -ile, or -are, the adverb is formed with the root of the adjective plus the ending -mente.

Italian Adverbs

Adjectives (general)

Adjective (feminine)

Adverb

veloce

lento

gentile

facile

speciale

veloce

lenta

gentile

facile

speciale

velocemente (quickly)

lentamente (slowly)

gentilmente (kindly)

facilmente (easily)

specialmente (specially)

The table below contains adverbs that don’t come from adjectives; they’re used very often so try to memorize them.

List of Italian Adverbs

Above: sopra

Against: contro

Already: già

Always: sempre

Around: attorno

Badly: male

Behind: dietro

Beyond: oltre

in, inside: dentro

Moreover: inoltre

Nearby: vicino

Outside: fuori

Soon: presto

Still: ancora

Then: dopo / poi

Together: insieme

Below: sotto

Well: bene

This is a list of some very important verbs in Italian:

Italian Expressions
to abandon oneself	abbandonarsi
to accept	accettare
to admit	ammettere
to affirm	affermare
to agree	convenire
to agree	accondiscéndere
to announce	annunciare
to apply oneself to	méttersi
to appreciate	gradire
to ask	chiedere
to ask	domandare
to aspire	aspirare
to assure	assicurare
to attempt	tentare
to avoid	evitare
to avoid	tralasciare
to be able to	essere in grado
to be able to, can	potere
to be about	accìngersi
to be ashamed	Avere vergogna
to be ashamed of	Vergognarsi di
to be concerned with	occuparsi
to be eager for	anelare / essere ansiosi per
to be exhausted	non poterne più / essere esausti
to be happy	essere lieto
to be happy	essere contento
to be happy	essere felice
to be in a hurry	avere fretta
to be in the position of	essere nella posizione di
to be interested in	interessarsi
to be late	tardare
to be on the point of	avviarsi
to be proud	essere fiero
to be saddened	dispiacersi
to be sorry	dolersi
to begin	iniziare
to believe	credere
to believe	ritenere
to carry on	proseguire
to come	venire
to communicate	comunicare
to compel	obbligare
to complain	lamentarsi
to condemn	condannare
to confess	confessare
to confirm	confermare
to consent	acconsentire
to continue	continuare
to convince	persuadere
to dare	osare
to dare	arrischiarsi
to decide	decidere
to decide	decidersi
to declare	dichiarare
to defend	sostenere
to delude oneself	illudersi
to demonstrate	dimostrare
to devote oneself	darsi
to do one's best	ingegnarsi
to doubt	dubitare
to dream	sognare
to encourage	incoraggiare
to encourage	incoraggiare
to end by	finire
to establish	stabilire
to exclude	escludere
to expect	aspettarsi
to fantasize	fantasticare
to fantasize	fantasticare
to fear	avere paura
to feel	avere l'impressione
to feel like	sentirsela
to force	costrìngere
to force	obbligare
to forget	dimenticare
to forget about something	lasciar perdere
to get ready	apprestarsi
to get ready	dispórsi
to get tired of something	stancarsi
to get tired of	stancarsi
to get used to	abituarsi
to go	andare
to go back	tornare
to go on	seguitare
to guess	indovinare
to have a good time	divertirsi
to have difficulty	stentare
to have in mind	ripromettersi
to have the right	avere il diritto
to have to	dovere
to hazard	azzardare
to hazard	azzardarsi
to help	aiutare
to hint	accennare
to hope	augurarsi
to hope	sperare
to hurry up	affrettarsi
to hurry up	sbrigarsi
to ignore	ignorare
to inform	informare
to insist	insìstere
to intend	avere intenzione
to intend	intendere
to invite	invitare
to invite	invitare
to know	sapere
to know	sapere
to learn	apprèndere
to learn	imparare
to limit oneself	limitarsi
to long for	ambire
to love	amare
to narrate	narrare
to need	avere bisogno
to need, to feel like	avere voglia
to negate	negare
to neglect	trascurare
to oblige	costrìngere
to offer	offrire
to pass	passare
to persist	ostinarsi
to persist	persìstere
to plan	proporsi
to prefer	preferire
to prepare oneself	acconciarsi
to prepare oneself	prepararsi
to pretend	fingere
to promise	promettere
to propose	proporre
to realize	accòrgersi
to realize	rendersi conto
to recognize	riconoscere
to refuse	rifiutarsi
to regret	pentirsi
to regret	rimpiangere
to remember	ricordare
to remember	ricordarsi
to renounce	rinunciare
to repeat	ripetere
to report	riferire
to resign oneself	rassegnarsi
to risk	rischiare
to run	córrere
to say	dire
to scream	spolmonarsi
to send	mandare
to start	attaccare
to start	cominciare
to start	incominciare
to start	prèndere
to start over	riprèndere
to stay	stare
to stop	smettere
to stop	cessare
to stop	smettere
to stop	fermarsi
to stop, to end	finire
to succeed	riuscire
to suffer	soffrire
to suppose	supporre
to suspect	sospettare
to swear	giurare
to tell	raccontare
to tend	tèndere
to thank	ringraziare
to think	pensare
to think	avere idea
to think of	pensare
to threaten	minacciare
to to be a question of	trattarsi
to try	cercare
to try	provare
to try	provarsi
to understand	capire
to undertake	intraprèndere
to value, to care	tenérci
to wait	attendere
to wait	aspettare
to want	volere
to wish	desiderare
to wonder	meravigliarsi
to wonder	stupirsi
to worry	preoccuparsi
to yearn for	agognare