Learn Italian: Il vento è forte e il tempo sta per peggiorare. - The wind is strong and the weather is about to worsen.

Il vento è forte e il tempo sta per peggiorare.

The wind is strong and the weather is about to worsen.

Breakdown of Il vento è forte e il tempo sta per peggiorare.

the time, the weather

per

for / in order to / because of

Questions & Answers about Il vento è forte e il tempo sta per peggiorare.

How does sta per peggiorare express that something is about to happen?

This uses the structure stare per plus an infinitive verb. You conjugate stare to match the subject (here, sta for il tempo) and add per followed by the dictionary form of the action verb (peggiorare). It is the exact equivalent of the English 'is about to [verb]'.

I learned that tempo means 'time'. Why does it mean 'weather' in this sentence?

The Italian word tempo is used for both chronological time and meteorological weather. You have to rely on context to tell them apart. Since this sentence starts by talking about the strong wind (il vento è forte), it makes perfectly clear that tempo refers to the weather here.

Is the verb peggiorare related to the word peggio (worse)?

Yes, it is! Peggio means 'worse', and peggiorare is the verb meaning 'to get worse' or 'to worsen'. As a bonus, its exact opposite is migliorare (to improve), which comes from meglio (better).

I usually hear Italians say c'è vento for windy weather. Is il vento è forte natural?

Yes! C'è vento (literally 'there is wind') is the standard way to say 'it is windy' in general. However, saying il vento è forte is perfectly natural when you want to emphasize the specific intensity of the wind, translating exactly to 'the wind is strong'.