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Il lupo è vivo: corre nel bosco.

Il lupo è vivo: corre nel bosco.
The wolf is alive: it is running in the woods.
From Lesson 109:Choosing between past tenses·Italian

Questions & Answers about Il lupo è vivo: corre nel bosco.

The translation says 'is running', but doesn't corre just mean 'runs'?
In Italian, the simple present tense like corre is used for both habitual actions ('it runs') and actions happening right now ('it is running'). You could say sta correndo to really emphasize that the running is happening this exact second, but the simple present corre is perfectly natural and common here.
Why is 'is alive' translated as è vivo? Isn't there a verb for 'to live'?
There is! The verb to live is vivere. However, vivo here is an adjective that means 'alive'. Just like in English, this sentence describes a state of being using the verb essere (to be) plus the adjective vivo, rather than saying 'it lives' (vive).
Why do we use nel bosco instead of in il bosco?
Whenever the preposition in (in) is followed directly by the masculine singular article il (the), they must merge into the combined word nel. In Italian, you will never see in il written as two separate words.
If I wanted to change this sentence to the past tense to say 'The wolf was alive: it was running', which past tense would I use?
You would use the imperfetto (imperfect) for both verbs: Il lupo era vivo: correva nel bosco. Because being alive is a continuous state and running in the woods is an ongoing background action, the imperfetto is the right choice, rather than the completed action of the passato prossimo.

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