I am eating, you are drinking, the soprano is singing. In Italian, the gerund (il gerundio) is equivalent to the "-ing" verb form in English. To form the simple gerund in Italian, add -ando to the stem of -are verbs and -endo to the stem of -ere and -ire verbs. There is also another form of the gerund, the compound gerund (il gerundio composto). It is formed with the either the gerund form of either avere or essere + past participle of the action verb (see the table below).
|
FORMING GERUNDS | |
|
GERUNDIO |
GERUNDIO COMPOSTO |
|
cadendo (falling) |
essendo caduto/a/i/e (having fallen) |
|
leggendo (reading) |
avendo letto (having read) |
|
mangiando (eating) |
avendo mangiato (having eaten) |