The immediate future (essere sul punto di)

The Immediate Future: Essere sul punto di

To describe an action that is just about to happen, Italian uses essere sul punto di followed by an infinitive. It translates literally as "to be on the point of" and is the standard way to say you are "on the verge of" or "about to" do something.

Conjugate essere for your subject, then add sul punto di and the infinitive verb.

It works exactly the same for inanimate objects:

In the Past

This construction is often used in the imperfect tense (l'imperfetto) to build suspense, set a scene, or describe an action that was suddenly interrupted.

Simply use the imperfect forms of essere (like ero or era) + sul punto di.