Gerund is the tense which expresses an action in progress (being, coming, seeing, etc.).
The Italian gerund is very easy, modelled on the inflection ...endo, except
for verbs of the 1st conjugation, whose penultimate vowel is a (...ando):

1st conj. mangiare (to eat)	mangiando (eating)
2st conj. cadére (to fall)	cadendo (falling)
2st conj. pèrdere (to lose)	perdendo (losing)
3st conj. capire (to understand)	capendo (understanding)

When gerund is referred to a specific person it behaves as a compound verb,
requiring an auxiliary verb. In English this verb is always to be (I am staying,
he was watching, etc.), while Italian uses stare,
a verb of the 1st conjugation.
Stare can be simply translated to be, though it has a specific meaning of
to be present, to exist (either for a given condition or for a physical object).
Stare is used with the gerund tense of both transitive and intransitive verbs.
It has a couple of slightly irregular present inflections (shown in red colour):

PRESENTE

		singular			plural
1st person		(io) sto	I am		(noi) stiamo	we are
2nd person		(tu) stai	you are (singular)		(voi) state	you are (plural)
3rd person		(egli / ella) sta	he/she/it is		(essi / esse) stanno	they are

IMPERFETTO

		singular			plural
1st person		(io) stavo	I was		(noi) stavamo	we were
2nd person		(tu) stavi	you were (singular)		(voi) stavate	you were (plural)
3rd person		(egli / ella) stava	he/she/it was		(essi / esse) stavano	they were

Since this verb will be now used only with gerund, it is enough to practice the aforesaid
present and imperfect tenses; others will be discussed in a future paragraph.


As in English, the gerund's auxiliary verb may be take the present tense and the
past tense (imperfect in Italian), thus obtaining a present gerund and a
past gerund.

The following tables show both of them for the verb pensare (to think).

GERUNDIO PRESENTE

		singular			plural
1st person		(io) sto pensando	I am thinking		(noi) stiamo pensando	we are thinking
2nd person		(tu) stai pensando	you are thinking (s.)		(voi) state pensando	you are thinking (p.)
3rd person		(egli / ella) sta pensando	he/she is thinking		(essi / esse) stanno pensando	they are thinking

GERUNDIO PASSATO

		singular			plural
1st person		(io) stavo pensando	I was thinking		(noi) stavamo pensando	we were thinking
2nd person		(tu) stavi pensando	you were thinking (s.)		(voi) stavate pensando	you were thinking (p.)
3rd person		(egli / ella) stava pensando	he/she was thinking		(essi / esse) stavano pensando	they were thinking

In Italian, gerund is used more sparingly than in English. It is required to
express either the lapse of time during which an action is carried out,
or by which means the other action occurs.

comprerò la cena tornando a casa = I will buy the dinner (while) coming home
ha guadagnato questo denaro vendendo libri = he/she earned this money (by) selling books
ha appreso questa notizia leggendo il giornale = he learned about this news (by / while) reading the paper

In most cases it is also possible to reverse the position of the gerund, to give the other
action a stronger emphasis:

tornando a casa comprerò la cena = (while) coming home I will buy the dinner
vendendo libri ha guadagnato questo denaro = (by) selling books he/she earned this money
leggendo il giornale ha appreso questa notizia = (by / while) reading the paper he learned about this news

For simple actions in progress, such as I am writing, he was sleeping, etc.,
proper Italian would require a gerund, as well. In common speech, though, this is very
often replaced by present indicative or by imperfect indicative:

sto mangiando (more colloquially: mangio) = I am reading
stavamo correndo (more colloquially: correvamo) = we were running
stanno studiando storia (more colloquially: studiano storia) = they are studying history

NOTE
In Italian, the gerund is never used to express the verb impersonally, as to describe
an activity, as it is in English. For this purpose, in Italian either the infinitive
tense or a specific noun referred to the verb are used:

leggere (or la lettura) è una cosa positiva = reading is a positive thing
odio guardare la televisione = I hate watching the television
fumare (or il fumo) è una cattiva abitudine = smoking (or smoke) is a bad habit
correre (or la corsa) è uno sport molto comune = running is a very common sport
dormire (or il sonno) è la nostra attività preferita = sleeping is our favourite activity

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This article was used with permission from:
Teach Yourself Italian