Question 1

How does stava mentendo work here?

Accepted Answer

This is the past progressive tense, used for ongoing actions in the past ("was lying"). It is formed with the imperfect tense of stare (here, stava for "he/she/it was") and the gerund of the main verb. The gerund of mentire (to lie) is mentendo.

Question 2

How did the verb mentire turn into mentendo?

Accepted Answer

To form the gerund (the "-ing" equivalent) in Italian, you drop the infinitive ending. You add -ando for -are verbs, and -endo for both -ere and -ire verbs. Since mentire is an -ire verb, it becomes mentendo.

Question 3

Why doesn't the sentence say lui stava mentendo since the translation says "he was lying"?

Accepted Answer

In Italian, subject pronouns like lui (he) or lei (she) are usually dropped because the verb ending or context makes it obvious. Here, stava could mean "he was", "she was", or "you (formal) were", but the wider context of the conversation tells us it means "he".

Question 4

How can I tell if l'alibi is a masculine or feminine word?

Accepted Answer

The article l' is used for both masculine and feminine singular words starting with a vowel, so it doesn't directly tell you the gender. However, the adjective vero (true) ends in -o, which confirms that alibi is a masculine word.

Ma stava mentendo, l'alibi non è vero.

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