Learn Italian: Aspettiamo la nascita da un mese. - We have been waiting for the birth for a month.

Aspettiamo la nascita da un mese.

We have been waiting for the birth for a month.

Breakdown of Aspettiamo la nascita da un mese.

to wait / to wait for

since, for (duration)

Questions & Answers about Aspettiamo la nascita da un mese.

Why is the present tense aspettiamo used when the English translation says "We have been waiting"?

In Italian, when an action started in the past and is still happening right now, you use the present tense along with da (meaning "since" or "for"). English uses the present perfect continuous ("have been waiting"), but Italian keeps it simple with the present tense because the waiting is still happening.

Why do we use da here instead of per to mean "for a month"?

You use da for an ongoing duration. Because we started waiting a month ago and are still waiting for the birth right now, da is required. You would use per only if the time period was completely finished, such as if you were telling a story about the past: "We waited for a month."

Where is the Italian word for "for" after aspettiamo?

The Italian verb aspettare already means "to wait for." It connects directly to the thing you are waiting for (la nascita) without needing an extra preposition in between.

Could da also mean "since" in a similar sentence?

Yes! If you wanted to specify a starting point like "since last month," you would say dal mese scorso. The preposition da covers both "for" (an amount of time) and "since" (an exact starting point) when talking about ongoing actions.