Practice English Speaking&Listening with: Tutti gli usi del GERUNDIO in Italiano (ita audio with subs)

What is the Italian gerund and how is it used? Well, let's find out in today's video! Hello everyone and

welcome to a new video. I am Stefano and I am an Italian teacher. If this

is your first time on the channel, don't forget to subscribe to not miss any future videos

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like under this video. It will help me a lot! In today's video we'll talk about a

very interesting and also important grammar topic! We will talk about the gerund! You should know

that there are actually two types of gerunds: the present gerund and the past gerund. In

Italian, the use of the gerund is very very common in a specific case, the present progressive

which, however, I'm sure you already know, but don't worry because we will go over it

in a moment! Then there are other uses of the gerund that are not so common in spoken Italian but you can

find them in writing, such as in books so it is also very important to know those

types of gerunds, those functions of the gerund to understand what you are reading. So if

you are on an intermediate or even advanced level this video is perfect for you! First of all,

how is the gerund formed? Well, to form the present gerund is very easy. As always

you must remove the ending of the infinitive and add the endings of the gerund which

will be -ando for verbs in are, -endo for verbs in ere and again -endo for verbs in

ire. And then we will have: to speak speaking, to fall falling, to hear haring. Instead, to form

the past gerund it is very simple you have to use the present gerund of the auxiliary verb to

be or to have and then add the past participle. Remember that the gerund of the verb to have

is having, while the gerund of the verb to be is being. For example, let's take the verbs we used before: to

speak having spoken, having spoken, to fall having fallen, or caduta, caduti, cadute. In

this case, you have to change the ending of the past participle based on the gender

and number of the subject. This is because of course we are using the auxiliary verb to be. And

finally feel having heard. And now let's start looking at the uses of the gerund. The first use,

which I am sure you are all familiar with, is that of the present progressive. Hence the verb stare in the

present plus the gerund. The present progressive is used to express an action that is happening

right now, right now. For example "I'm eating pizza", "I'm eating pizza",

or "movie are you watching?", "What movie are you watching?". Remember that obviously

the present progressive can also be used to express an action that is happening

right now but is actually continued. So when I say this moment

I mean a longer moment. For example, "I am studying Italian", "I am studying Italian"

means that you are studying Italian right now at this moment or that for example you have been

studying it for a year so it is true you are doing it now, maybe not right now,

but it is something that you are doing in your life and again we can use the present

progressive. Obviously, we can also use this progressive form in the past tense. To do this,

you need to use the verb to stay in the past tense, in the imperfect, plus the gerund. For example

"I was going to school and I met Cristina", "I was going to school and I met Cristina",

or "what were you doing yesterday at 2 am?", "What were you doing yesterday at 2 am?". This

use of the gerund is very common in the spoken language and I'm sure you already knew it, but

there are many other uses of the gerund, especially in the written language, that it is important to know.

To explain these uses of the gerund to you, I have to make a small difference between an explicit sentence and

an implicit sentence. What does this mean? It sounds difficult, but it's actually very easy!

An explicit sentence is an Italian sentence that has a verb with the subject. For example,

if I say "while I go to school bla bla bla", "while I go to school" is an explicit sentence

because I am using the present tense and that verb "I go" has a subject. "While I go to school". If

instead of saying "while I go to school", however, I say "going to school", then I use a gerund, here we

have an implicit sentence. This is because "going" does not have a subject, or rather it

has a subject, but it could be any subject! Going to school it can be me, you, him,

her. We do not know! We understand this from the context, but the gerund alone does not have a subject. Well,

in that case we'll call that implicit sentence. And why am I explaining all this to you? I am

explaining this to you because the gerund is often used in implicit sentences to replace a concept,

an idea that could still be expressed by an explicit sentence. What does this mean?

Well, let's see it with some examples. If I say "going to school I met my sister",

"going to school I met my sister", I am basically using the gerund "going" in

a temporal sense, because the phrase could also be "while I was going to school I met

my sister ", or "getting off the train I lost my house keys", "getting off the train

I lost my house keys ". Here it is basically the same, it is always a temporal sentence. That is,

"as I got off the train, I lost my house keys". But beware of one thing! I can use this structure in

temporal sentences, that is, I can use the gerund, for the simple fact that I have the

same subject between the two sentences. If we take the first sentence we used that is

"I met my sister going to school", in this case, I can use the gerund because "while

I was going to school" I always "met my sister", the subjects are the same between the two

sentences: me, me. If, on the other hand, it meant something like "while I was going to school my mother

called me", I cannot say "andando a scuola mi ha chiamato mia madre", because otherwise the phrase

would be a bit ambiguous. It is possible to do this but it is ambiguous because it might seem like my

mom was going to school, not me! Because it could be "while my mom was going to

school", so while she was going to school, she my mother "called me". So beware,

this is generally possible when the subjects between the two sentences are the same. So

now we have seen the use of the gerund in temporal sentences, that is, to express the idea of

when, while. In reality, the gerund also has another very important function, that of

expressing a cause, that is, the cause of something. I mean, why, why did that thing happen,

what is the cause? For example, "having graduated with full marks it will be very easy to find

work", "having graduated with full marks it will be very easy to find work". In this case,

what am I saying? Since you graduated with honors, it

will be very easy for you to find a job. So why will it be easy to find work? What

is the cause of the ease in finding work? Well, having graduated with honors,

so it will be easy! This is the cause, but this is a previous cause, that is, first you graduated

with honors and then it will be possible it will be easier to find a job, that's why we use

the past gerund. All clear? In this case, even if the subjects are not the same,

it is not important, because I am saying "having graduated", because the verb to graduate is a reflexive verb

that requires a pronoun, so by saying "having graduated" I understand that I am speaking to

you. Be careful though! As you can see in this case, I placed the pronoun "ti" after the gerund

of the auxiliary verb "essendoti", "essendoti". This is because when we have a past gerund

that requires a reflexive pronoun, direct object pronoun, indirect object, the pronoun

is always attached to the end of the auxiliary verb! That's why "essendoti laureato". The gerund can

also be used in sentences that are normally introduced by "even if", but if we do this,

we must add "pur" in front of the gerund. For example "While saving a lot,

Giacomo doesn't have a penny", "While saving a lot, Giacomo doesn't have a penny". That is,

even if Giacomo saves a lot, he doesn't have a penny. And you might tell me, Stefano,

this phrase "pur risparmiando" seems very formal to me. And you are right, it is extremely formal,

I would never use it in everyday language, in colloquial Italian. But I'm here

to teach you the language that we Italians speak every day and why am I explaining this to you?

Because there is a very very specific expression that uses this structure and we use this

expression in Italian every day. The expression I'm talking about is "pur volendo",

"pur volendo". I'll give you some examples "even if I want to, I can't come tomorrow", "even if

I want to, I can't come tomorrow". In this case I am saying "even if I would like to come,

even if I would love to come, unfortunately, I cannot come tomorrow because

I have another commitment or something else to do". Or, "even if I want to help you, I don't understand

anything about math", "even if I want to help you, I don't understand anything about math". In this case,

I say "even if I would like to help you, even if I want to help you, I can't do it, why? Because

I don't understand anything about math. So, "pur volendo "by itself means "even if I want to",

"even if I would like", or "pur volendo" plus the infinitive, for example, "pur volendo aiutarti"

"even if I want to help you", "even if I would like to help you". These are very

common expressions in the Italian language that we really use every day, so these are

phrases that I recommend you use. So, as you see, the gerund is very very important

in the progressive forms "I'm eating", "I was eating", then sometimes in time phrases,

for example "While I was going to school, I met my sister ", that is, "going

to school, I met my sister ", but it is not something we would use too much in the spoken language,

the same goes for causal phrases, we don't use it that much in the spoken language but a lot

in writing. And then, "even if." We do not use the gerund too much in that case but we use it a

lot in the expression "pur volendo", which I recommend you learn. That's all, as

always I hope you enjoyed the video and if you have any questions, please write them to

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I hope as always that you enjoyed the video. A hug from Italy, bye!