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Le città sono affollate e vediamo le persone correre.

Le città sono affollate e vediamo le persone correre.
The cities are crowded and we see people running.
From Lesson 261:Perception verbs with infinitives (vedere, sentire)·Italian

Breakdown of Le città sono affollate e vediamo le persone correre.

essere
to be
e
and
la persona
the person
la città
the city
vedere
to see
correre
to run
affollato
crowded

Questions & Answers about Le città sono affollate e vediamo le persone correre.

Why is it correre (to run) instead of a form like correndo (running)?
In Italian, when you use a verb of perception like vedere (to see) or sentire (to hear) to describe someone doing an action, you use the infinitive (the dictionary form) of the second verb. While in English we say 'we see people running', Italian uses the infinitive. Think of it as 'we see people run' (vediamo le persone correre). You cannot use the gerund (correndo) for this structure in Italian.
Can the word order change for vediamo le persone correre?
Yes! With verbs of perception, you can actually put the infinitive before the object. Both vediamo le persone correre and vediamo correre le persone are perfectly correct and natural ways to say this in Italian.
Why is the plural of city città and not something like cittè?
Nouns that end in an accented vowel, like città (city) or caffè (coffee), are invariable in Italian. This means their endings do not change when they become plural. You can tell it is plural here because it is paired with the plural definite article Le and the plural verb sono.
Why does affollate end in -e?
Adjectives must agree in gender and number with the noun they describe. Because Le città is a feminine plural noun in this sentence, the adjective affollato (crowded) must change to its feminine plural form, affollate.

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