Learn Italian: Professore, sta spolverando la scrivania? - Professor, are you dusting the desk?

Because the speaker is addressing a professor, they are using the formal Lei (formal 'you'). In Italian, the formal 'you' always takes the third-person singular verb form, which is why we use sta instead of the informal stai.

How do we form the 'are dusting' part in this sentence?

This sentence uses the present progressive tense to show an action happening right now. You make it by combining a present tense form of stare (here, sta) with the gerund form of the main verb. For verbs ending in -are like spolverare (to dust), you drop the -are and add -ando to get spolverando.

Could I just say spolvera la scrivania instead of sta spolverando?

Yes, you can. In Italian, the simple present tense (spolvera) can mean both 'you dust' and 'you are dusting'. However, using the stare + gerund structure (sta spolverando) strongly emphasizes that the action is happening right at this exact moment.

Is spolverando related to the Italian word for dust?