Word
Il ragazzino corre ovunque; lo sto rincorrendo da un'ora.
Meaning
The little boy runs everywhere; I have been chasing him for an hour.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Il ragazzino corre ovunque; lo sto rincorrendo da un'ora.
un
a / an (masculine)
correre
to run
stare
to stay, to feel, to be
l'ora
hour
Questions & Answers about Il ragazzino corre ovunque; lo sto rincorrendo da un'ora.
Why is the pronoun lo placed before sto instead of attached to the verb?
With the progressive form (stare + gerund), you have two choices for object pronouns like lo (him). You can place it before the conjugated verb (lo sto rincorrendo) or attach it directly to the end of the gerund (sto rincorrendolo). Both are grammatically correct and mean the exact same thing, so you will hear both widely used.
The English translation says "I have been chasing", which is a past form. Why does Italian use the present tense sto rincorrendo?
In Italian, when an action started in the past and is still happening right now, you use a present tense along with da (for/since). Because you are still chasing the boy, Italian uses the present progressive (sto rincorrendo) + da un'ora. English uses "have been chasing", but using an Italian past tense here would imply you already stopped chasing him.
Is rincorrendo related to the verb correre (to run) used earlier in the sentence?
Yes! Correre means "to run", and adding the prefix rin- creates rincorrere, which means "to chase" or "to run after". So the boy runs (corre), and you chase (rincorrendo) him.
Can I use dappertutto instead of ovunque for "everywhere"?