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### The Past Progressive

To describe an action that was actively in progress at a specific moment in the past—like telling the police exactly what you were doing at 8 PM last night—use the past progressive.

### Stare + Gerund

Just like the present progressive, this tense requires the helper verb *stare* combined with a gerund (verbs ending in *-ando* or *-endo*). To place the action in the past, simply conjugate *stare* in the *imperfetto*.

| Pronoun | stare (imperfetto) |
|---|---|
| io | stavo |
| tu | stavi |
| lui/lei/Lei | stava |
| noi | stavamo |
| voi | stavate |
| loro | stavano |

Remember that to form the gerund, drop the infinitive ending and add **-ando** for *-are* verbs, and **-endo** for *-ere* and *-ire* verbs. Let's see this in action during a police investigation.

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### Actions in Progress

Whether a suspect was lying (*mentendo*) or hiding (*nascondendo*) the evidence, the past progressive emphasizes that the action was ongoing at that very moment.

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### Defending Your Alibi

To form a negative statement, place *non* directly before the conjugated form of *stare*. You will often see the past progressive used alongside the regular *imperfetto* to set the scene, tell a story, or defend an alibi!

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The past progressive (stavo mangiando)

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
the inspector	l'ispettore
to investigate	indagare
the crime	il crimine
The inspector was investigating a crime.	L'ispettore stava indagando su un crimine.
the suspect	il sospettato
the alibi	l'alibi
The suspect was explaining his alibi.	Il sospettato stava spiegando il suo alibi.
to lie	mentire
But he was lying, the alibi is not true.	Ma stava mentendo, l'alibi non è vero.
innocent	innocente
the jewel	il gioiello
I am innocent, I was not stealing the jewel!	Sono innocente, non stavo rubando il gioiello!
The girl is innocent and she was not lying.	La ragazza è innocente e non stava mentendo.
guilty	colpevole
The guilty man was hiding the jewel.	L'uomo colpevole stava nascondendo il gioiello.
The suspect is guilty of this crime.	Il sospettato è colpevole di questo crimine.
to arrest	arrestare
Why was the inspector arresting the man?	Perché l'ispettore stava arrestando l'uomo?
What were you doing to investigate the suspect?	Che cosa facevi per indagare sul sospettato?
I was telling the truth, I was not arresting an innocent person!	Dicevo la verità, non stavo arrestando un innocente!
The jewel is there, I was going there to investigate.	Il gioiello è lì, ci stavo andando per indagare.