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)
The imperfect stems are used to form the gerunds of verbs such as dire (dicendo), fare (facendo), porre (ponendo), and tradurre (traducendo). The reflexive verbs attach the reflexive pronoun to the end of the word: lavandosi, sedendosi, divertendosi.
