Learn Italian: Sta per toccare il forno; lo sto bloccando! - He is about to touch the oven; I am blocking him!

With the progressive tense (stare + gerund), you actually have a choice! You can place the pronoun before the conjugated verb (lo sto bloccando) or attach it directly to the end of the gerund (sto bloccandolo). Both are grammatically correct and mean the exact same thing.

If I attach lo to the end of bloccando, does it change how the word is pronounced?

The spelling merges into one word (bloccandolo), but the natural stress of the gerund doesn't shift. You still emphasize the -an- syllable, pronouncing it as bloc-CAN-do-lo.

Both halves of the sentence use a form of stare, but they translate differently. How does this work?

This sentence perfectly contrasts two different structures. Stare per + an infinitive verb (toccare) means to be about to do something. Stare + a gerund (bloccando) creates the present continuous tense, meaning an action is happening right at this very moment.

Since lo can mean him or it, how do we know I am blocking a person and not the oven?

Grammatically, lo replaces any masculine singular direct object, so it could technically mean it and refer back to il forno. However, context is key: common sense tells us you are blocking a person (like a toddler) from touching the hot oven, rather than physically blocking the oven itself!