Italian has a small but high-frequency family of aspectual periphrases — verb-plus-infinitive constructions that mark the phase of an action: starting it, finishing it, stopping it, continuing it, resuming it. They are the everyday way Italians talk about getting going, keeping at something, or knocking off. English does the same job with bare gerunds (start working, stop smoking), so the meanings transfer easily — but Italian forces you to pick the right preposition before the infinitive, and the choice is lexically fixed: each aspectual verb selects either a or di, and you have to memorize which.
This page covers the core six: cominciare a, iniziare a, finire di, smettere di, continuare a, riprendere a — plus three useful extras (mettersi a, rimettersi a, tornare a) that round out the set.
The pattern at a glance
| Construction | Aspect | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| cominciare a + inf. | inchoative | to start doing |
| iniziare a + inf. | inchoative | to start doing (synonym) |
| mettersi a + inf. | ingressive | to set about doing, to launch into |
| finire di + inf. | terminative | to finish doing |
| smettere di + inf. | cessative | to stop doing, to quit |
| continuare a + inf. | continuative | to keep doing, to continue |
| riprendere a + inf. | resumptive | to resume, to start again |
| rimettersi a + inf. | resumptive | to get back to, to take up again |
| tornare a + inf. | repetitive | to do again |
The pattern is clean: a dominates (start, set about, continue, resume, return), and di appears only with the two "off" verbs (finish, stop). A useful mental shortcut is that di marks detachment from the action, while a marks engagement with it.
Cominciare a / iniziare a — to start
These two are interchangeable in everyday Italian. Cominciare is slightly older and more common in writing; iniziare is now the default in speech, especially among younger speakers. Both take a before the infinitive.
Ho cominciato a studiare l'italiano l'anno scorso.
I started studying Italian last year.
A che ora inizi a lavorare domani?
What time do you start work tomorrow?
Ha cominciato a piovere proprio quando siamo usciti.
It started raining just as we went out.
I bambini iniziano a stancarsi, dovremmo tornare a casa.
The kids are starting to get tired, we should head home.
Note that English speakers often say start to do AND start doing — Italian only has one option, the infinitive with a. There is no Italian gerund construction equivalent to start studying; it is always cominciare a studiare.
Mettersi a — to set about, to launch into
Mettersi a is the more vivid, ingressive cousin of cominciare. It implies a deliberate, often abrupt entry into the action — to plunge into, to get down to, to start in on. Reflexive, so it conjugates with essere in compound tenses.
Si è messo a cantare in mezzo alla strada.
He started singing right in the middle of the street.
Mi sono messa a piangere appena ho letto il messaggio.
I burst into tears as soon as I read the message.
Mettiamoci a lavorare, è già tardi.
Let's get down to work, it's already late.
Finire di — to finish
Finire takes di. Note that finire used without di + infinitive can mean simply "to end" (intransitive: il film finisce alle dieci), so the di is what signals you mean "finish doing X."
Ho finito di leggere il libro ieri sera.
I finished reading the book last night.
Quando finisci di lavorare?
When do you finish work?
Finiamo di mangiare e poi usciamo.
Let's finish eating and then we'll go out.
Non ho ancora finito di scrivere la tesi.
I still haven't finished writing my thesis.
Smettere di — to stop, to quit
Smettere di is the verb for quitting something — a habit, an activity, an annoying behavior. It is the standard verb for to quit smoking, to quit drinking, to stop talking. It always takes di.
Ha smesso di fumare cinque anni fa.
He quit smoking five years ago.
Smetti di lamentarti, per favore.
Stop complaining, please.
Ha smesso di piovere?
Has it stopped raining?
Non riesco a smettere di pensare a quello che mi ha detto.
I can't stop thinking about what he told me.
Related to fermarsi is the construction fermarsi a + infinitive — "to stop [moving] in order to do something." Here the motion really stops, and the infinitive expresses the purpose of the pause.
Ci siamo fermati a mangiare in un piccolo ristorante lungo la strada.
We stopped to eat at a little restaurant along the way.
Mi fermo a salutarla un attimo.
I'll stop to say hi to her for a moment.
Don't confuse fermarsi a + infinitive (pause to do something) with smettere di + infinitive (quit doing something). They translate similarly into English ("stop to / stop doing") but mean very different things.
Continuare a — to keep doing, to continue
Continuare takes a. Unlike English continue, which can take either an infinitive (continue to study) or a gerund (continue studying), Italian has only one option: continuare a + infinitive.
Continuo a studiare anche se sono stanca.
I keep studying even though I'm tired.
Continua a piovere da tre giorni.
It's been raining for three days straight.
I prezzi continuano a salire.
Prices keep going up.
Perché continui a chiedermi la stessa cosa?
Why do you keep asking me the same thing?
The English construction to keep on doing maps onto continuare a as well — there is no separate Italian verb for keep on as distinct from continue.
Riprendere a, rimettersi a, tornare a — to start again
Italian distinguishes three flavors of resuming an interrupted action.
Riprendere a is the neutral resumption — picking up where you left off after a pause.
Dopo la pausa pranzo abbiamo ripreso a lavorare.
After the lunch break we went back to work.
Ha ripreso a fumare dopo dieci anni.
He started smoking again after ten years.
Rimettersi a is the ingressive version — getting back into something with renewed energy. Reflexive, takes essere.
Mi sono rimesso a studiare il pianoforte dopo vent'anni.
I've taken up the piano again after twenty years.
Si è rimessa a piangere.
She started crying again.
Tornare a is the most idiomatic of the three: tornare a + infinitive literally means "to return to doing X" but is the natural Italian equivalent of English to do something again, especially for events one had hoped not to repeat.
Spero di tornare a vederti presto.
I hope to see you again soon.
Non voglio mai più tornare a vivere in città.
I never want to live in the city again.
Why the prepositions are not arbitrary (but mostly are)
Linguists have proposed semantic motivations for the a vs. di split — broadly, a marks goal-directed motion or engagement (headed toward the action), and di marks separation or completion (off from the action, done with the action). This works for the core cases: you "head into" continuing, starting, setting about (a); you "step off from" finishing or stopping (di).
But the system is not perfectly predictable. Cessare di (to cease doing) takes di, as expected — but terminare di also takes di even though it is closer in meaning to finish. Provare a (to try doing) takes a, but cercare di (to try / attempt) takes di, with no clear semantic reason. The honest answer: the prepositions must be memorized verb by verb. Treat each aspectual verb as a fixed lexical item — cominciare-a, finire-di, smettere-di, continuare-a — and drill them until they sound automatic.
For a fuller list of verbs and their prepositions, see verbs with preposition + infinitive.
English-to-Italian: where transfer breaks down
English speakers face two specific traps.
Trap 1: English doesn't always need a preposition before -ing. I started studying uses a bare gerund — there is no preposition. Italian forces a preposition: ho cominciato a studiare, never ho cominciato studiare. The most common beginner error is to drop the a.
Trap 2: English uses to + infinitive OR -ing interchangeably with some of these verbs. Continue to study and continue studying mean the same thing. Italian has only continuare a + infinitive — there is no gerund alternative. Don't try to translate continue studying as continuare studiando; the gerund construction does not work here.
Ho cominciato a lavorare alle nove.
I started working at nine.
Continuo a pensare al film di ieri sera.
I keep thinking about last night's movie.
Common mistakes
❌ Ho cominciato studiare l'italiano.
Incorrect — missing the obligatory 'a' before the infinitive.
✅ Ho cominciato a studiare l'italiano.
Correct — cominciare always takes 'a' before the infinitive.
❌ Ho finito a leggere il libro.
Incorrect — finire takes 'di', not 'a'.
✅ Ho finito di leggere il libro.
Correct — finire di + infinitive.
❌ Smetti a parlare!
Incorrect — smettere takes 'di', not 'a'.
✅ Smetti di parlare!
Correct — smettere di + infinitive.
❌ Continuo studiando anche se sono stanca.
Incorrect — Italian has no 'continuare + gerund' construction.
✅ Continuo a studiare anche se sono stanca.
Correct — continuare a + infinitive is the only option.
❌ Il treno ha smesso alla stazione.
Incorrect — smettere is for ceasing an activity, not for physical halting.
✅ Il treno si è fermato alla stazione.
Correct — fermarsi is the verb for coming to a halt.
❌ Mi ho messo a cantare.
Incorrect — mettersi is reflexive and takes essere, not avere.
✅ Mi sono messo a cantare.
Correct — reflexive verbs take essere in compound tenses.
Key takeaways
The Italian aspectual periphrases are a small set of verbs that combine with a fixed preposition (a or di) plus an infinitive to mark the phase of an action. The four most useful ones are:
- cominciare a / iniziare a — start doing
- finire di — finish doing
- smettere di — stop / quit doing
- continuare a — keep doing
Memorize the verb-preposition pair as a unit. Once you can say ho cominciato a studiare, ho finito di studiare, ho smesso di studiare, continuo a studiare without thinking, you have the skeleton of Italian aspectual expression. Add mettersi a for the energetic "I dove in" tone, riprendere a for resumption, and tornare a for "do again" and you cover essentially every aspectual nuance an everyday speaker needs.
For the broader landscape of periphrastic constructions — including progressives, imminence, and motion-plus-purpose — see the complete reference page.
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Open the Italian course →Related Topics
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