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### 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.

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It works exactly the same for inanimate objects:

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### 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**.

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The immediate future (essere sul punto di)

adjective

adjective/adverb

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

preposition

pronoun

proper noun

sentence

verb

Subject pronouns and the verb to be (io sono)

Singular definite articles (il, la)

Singular demonstratives (questo, questa)

Basic verbal negation (non)

Yes/No questions

Coordinating conjunctions (e, ma, o)

Regular plurals and definite articles (-i, -e, i, le)

Plural verb to be (noi siamo, voi siete)

Plural demonstratives (questi, queste)

Nouns ending in -e

Special singular articles (lo, l')

The plural article (gli)

Special indefinite articles (uno, un')

Demonstrative adjectives (quello, quella)

Adjective endings (-o, -a, -i, -e)

Expressing quantity (molto, poco, tanto)

The verb to have (ho, hai, ha...)

There is / there are (c'è, ci sono)

The preposition of (di)

Singular possessives (il mio, la mia)

Numbers 1 to 10 (uno, due, tre...)

Numbers 11 to 20 (undici, dodici...)

Numbers 21 to 100 (trenta, quaranta...)

Idiomatic avere (avere fame, avere anni)

Plural possessive adjectives (i miei, le mie)

Possessives with family members (mio padre)

Formal address (dare del Lei)

Present tense of -are verbs (-o, -i, -a)

Question words (chi, cosa, dove)

Present tense of -ere verbs (-o, -i, -e)

Question words (quando, come, perché)

Question word agreement (quanto, quanta, quanti, quante)

Regular -ire verbs

Verbs with -isc- (capisco, capisci, capisce)

Pronouns after prepositions (me, te, lui)

The verb fare (faccio, fai, fa)

The verb andare (vado, vai, va)

The verb stare (sto, stai, sta)

The verb venire (vengo, vieni, viene)

The verb uscire (esco, esci, esce)

Location and destination (a, in)

Origin and movement (da)

Articulated prepositions with a (al, alla)

Articulated prepositions with in (nel, nella)

Articulated prepositions with di and da (del, dal)

Simple prepositions (con, per, su, tra)

Articulated prepositions with su (sul, sulla)

Months of the year

Telling time (sono le...)

Dates (il + number)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 10th (primo, secondo, terzo...)

The verb to want (volere)

The verb can (potere)

The verb must (dovere)

The verb to know (sapere)

Reflexive verbs (mi lavo, ti lavi)

Indirect object pronouns (gli, le, ci...)

Expressing preferences (mi piace)

Plural preferences (mi piacciono)

Comparatives (più... di, meno... di)

The passato prossimo with avere (ho parlato)

Irregular past participles (fatto, letto, preso)

The passato prossimo with essere (sono andato)

Reflexive verbs in the past (mi sono svegliato)

Time adverbs with the past tense (già, mai, ancora)

Third-person direct object pronouns (lo, la, li, le)

First and second-person direct object pronouns (mi, ti, ci, vi)

The four seasons

Prepositions of place (vicino a, davanti a)

Conversational words (beh, allora, davvero)

Indefinite adjectives for some (qualche, alcuni)

Indefinite adjectives for every and all (ogni, tutti)

Indefinite pronouns (qualcosa, qualcuno)

Noun suffixes (-ino, -one)

Adverbs of manner (-mente)

Comparisons of equality (così... come)

The relative superlative (il più)

The absolute superlative (-issimo)

Irregular comparatives (migliore, peggiore)

Present progressive (stare + -ando, -endo)

Imminent actions (stare per)

The locative pronoun (ci)

The partitive pronoun (ne)

Pronoun placement with modal verbs

Impersonal subjects (si)

Prepositions of time (da, per, tra, fra)

Past participle agreement with pronouns

Question	Answer
to go crazy	impazzire
I am on the verge of going crazy.	Sono sul punto di impazzire.
to yell / to scream	urlare
She is about to yell.	È sul punto di urlare.
to burst / to break out	scoppiare
We are about to burst out laughing.	Siamo sul punto di scoppiare a ridere.
to explode	esplodere
The engine is about to explode.	Il motore è sul punto di esplodere.
the bomb	la bomba
The bomb was about to explode.	La bomba era sul punto di esplodere.
the brawl / the fight	la rissa
The brawl was about to break out.	La rissa era sul punto di scoppiare.
the argument / the quarrel	il litigio
The argument was about to end.	Il litigio era sul punto di finire.
to whisper	sussurrare
I was about to whisper the answer.	Ero sul punto di sussurrare la risposta.
to break / to snap (into pieces)	spezzare
I broke the branch without making noise.	Ho spezzato il ramo senza fare rumore.
I was running for an hour without catching my breath.	Correvo da un'ora senza prendere fiato.
Marco makes me lose my patience.	Marco mi fa perdere la pazienza.
The manager has the brawl stopped.	Il direttore fa fermare la rissa.
the breath (act of breathing)	il respiro
Fear makes her lose her breath.	La paura le fa mancare il respiro.
That bomb, they found it in time.	Quella bomba, l'hanno trovata in tempo.
The argument, you started it!	Il litigio, lo hai iniziato tu!
The secret, I whisper it in his ear.	Il segreto, glielo sussurro all'orecchio.
That noise has been driving me crazy for an hour.	Quel rumore mi fa impazzire da un'ora.
The storm is about to break out.	Il temporale è sul punto di scoppiare.
The surprise makes her yell.	La sorpresa la fa urlare.
I was about to snap the pen.	Ero sul punto di spezzare la penna.
The patient is about to fall asleep, his breath is slow.	Il paziente è sul punto di addormentarsi, il suo respiro è lento.