There are “ing” tenses in English language, we can say “I am walking, you are doing, she was working, we will be calling” and so on. There are exactly the same tenses in Italian language. But before the ending -ing as in English, we will change an ending to -ando or -endo.
For -ARE verbs, we change the ending to -ANDO
giocare – to play, giocando – playing
trovare – to find, trovando – finding
chiamare – to call, chiamando – calling
For -ERE/-IRE verbs, we change the ending to -ENDO
venire – to come, venendo – coming
dormire – to sleep, dormendo – sleeping
vivire – to live, vivendo – living
And there are 3 exceptions:
fare – to do, facendo – doing
dire – to say, dicendo – saying
bere – to drink, bevendo – drinking
And in order to form tenses with these participles, we need to know the conjugation of the verb STARE – to be (about difference from ESSERE, a bit later):
Io sto | I am |
Tu stai | You are |
Lui, Lei sta | He, she is |
Noi stiamo | We are |
Voi state | You are |
Loro stanno | They are |
And past tense form – STATO
Let’s see how it works:
Lui sta aspettando – He is waiting
Io sto bevendo – I am drinking
Noi siamo stato facendo – We were doing
Che cosa lei ha stato dicendo? – What was she saying?
Chi stai chiamando adesso? – Who are you calling now?
Miei fratelli stanno andando a casa – My brothers are going to home