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Marco va al cinema stasera.

Marco va al cinema stasera.
Marco is going to the cinema tonight.
From Lesson 39:The verb andare (vado, vai, va)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Marco va al cinema stasera.

Why is 'is going' translated as va instead of something that looks like the infinitive andare?
Andare (to go) is a highly irregular verb. Instead of following normal -are verb rules, its forms change completely. For 'he/she/it goes' (or 'is going'), the correct form is va.
The translation says 'Marco is going', but doesn't va mean 'Marco goes'?
In Italian, the simple present tense (va) translates to both 'he goes' (a regular habit) and 'he is going' (happening right now or in the near future). Italian doesn't usually need a separate 'is going' form like English does.
What does al mean here, and why can't I just say a il cinema?
Al means 'to the'. In Italian, when the preposition a (to) meets the masculine definite article il (the), they must combine into the single word al. You will never see a il written separately.
Since cinema ends in an '-a', shouldn't it be a feminine word? Why do we use the masculine al instead of the feminine alla?
Cinema is an exception to the usual rule that words ending in '-a' are feminine. It is a masculine noun because it is short for the older word cinematografo. That's why we use the masculine forms il and al.
Is stasera a combination of two words?
Yes! Stasera is a shortened, combined version of questa sera, which literally means 'this evening'. It is the most common way to say 'tonight' in Italian.

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