In short

Sto mangiando = I am eating right now; sto per mangiare = I am about to eat. Both conjugate only stare and leave the second verb fixed. The catch for English speakers: Italian does not need the progressive - mangio already means both I eat and I am eating, so use sto mangiando only when you want to insist that the action is happening at this very moment.

The rule

English forces you to choose between I eat and I am eating. Italian does not: the simple present (step 6) covers both. Stare + gerundio is an optional zoom lens - you reach for it only to frame an action in progress at a specific moment. If you translate every English -ing with it, your Italian will sound wrong, which is why this lesson is as much about when not to use it as about how to build it.

stare + gerundio - an action in progress

• Step 1 - Conjugate stare. Only this word changes. Present: sto, stai, sta, stiamo, state, stanno. Imperfect: stavo, stavi, stava, stavamo, stavate, stavano.
• Step 2 - Make the gerundio. Drop the infinitive ending and add: -are -> -ando (parlare -> parlando); -ere and -ire -> -endo (credere -> credendo, dormire -> dormendo).
• Step 3 - Put them together. Sto parlando, stavo dormendo. The gerundio never agrees with anything - it has one form for every subject.

Two tenses cover almost everything you need at A2:

• Present: happening now. Che cosa stai facendo? - Sto studiando.
• Imperfect: was happening then, typically interrupted. Stavo uscendo quando ha telefonato.

There is no compound version: sono stato mangiando does not exist. For a finished past action use the passato prossimo (step 14).

When Italian does NOT use it

This is the part that costs marks. Use the plain present instead when the action is:

• Habitual: Ogni mattina bevo un caffè - Every morning I drink a coffee. Never sto bevendo here.
• Future: Domani vado a Roma - Tomorrow I’m going to Rome. English uses -ing for plans; Italian cannot. Sto andando a Roma can only mean I’m on my way to Rome right now.
• A state rather than an activity: Sono felice, Ho fame, Conosco Marco, Mi piace la musica. Verbs like essere, avere, sapere, conoscere, piacere normally resist the progressive.

stare per + infinitive - the imminent future

Same skeleton, different filling: conjugate stare, add per, then the infinitive (the dictionary form, never a gerund). It means to be about to / to be on the point of:

Sto per uscire. Il treno sta per partire. In the imperfect it means was about to, and it is the natural way to say something almost happened: Stavo per chiamarti.

Pronouns

With both periphrases, an object or reflexive pronoun has two homes: before stare, or attached to the end of the gerundio/infinitive. Both are correct, and the meaning is identical.

• Lo sto facendo. = Sto facendolo.
• Mi sto lavando. = Sto lavandomi.
• Lo sto per fare. = Sto per farlo.

Note the boundary: the gerundio also lives outside these periphrases, on its own, meaning by doing / having done (Avendo finito, sono uscito). That is a different, later job - see Non-finite forms and implicit clauses. Here the gerundio only ever follows stare.

Forms & patterns

stare in the two tenses that matter, with the gerundio bolted on:

Building the gerundio - two endings, no exceptions by conjugation:

The irregular gerunds. They are few, and they all reuse the verb’s long Latin stem - the same stem you already see in the imperfect (facevo, dicevo, bevevo):

The two periphrases side by side - just a per and a verb ending apart in form, a whole tense apart in meaning:

Examples

Common mistakes

• Sto andando a Roma domani -> Vado a Roma domani - stare + gerundio can only mean now. It has no future reading, so English “I’m going to Rome tomorrow” is a plain present in Italian.
• Sto per mangiando -> Sto per mangiare - after per comes the infinitive. Mixing the two patterns is the classic slip: gerundio after stare, infinitive after stare per.
• Sto faciendo i compiti -> Sto facendo i compiti - fare, dire, bere build the gerundio on their long stem: facendo, dicendo, bevendo. The forms faciendo, diciendo and beendo do not exist.
• Sono stato mangiando quando è arrivato -> Stavo mangiando quando è arrivato - there is no compound form of this periphrasis. Ongoing in the past = stavo + gerundio.
• Ogni giorno sto lavorando dalle nove -> Ogni giorno lavoro dalle nove - a habit is never progressive. Ogni giorno, sempre, di solito are a red flag for the plain present.

Tips

• Ask “is it happening while I speak?” If yes, sto + gerundio is available (but optional). If no - habit, plan, state - the simple present is the only right answer.
• stare + gerundio is never obligatory. Mangio is a perfectly good I am eating. Italians use the periphrasis far less than English uses -ing, so when in doubt, drop it: a plain present is never wrong, an unnecessary sto mangiando often is.
• Two words, two verb forms: per -> infinitive, nothing -> gerundio. Sto per uscire / Sto uscendo.
• The irregular gerunds are free if you know the imperfect: take facevo, dicevo, bevevo, swap the ending for -endo, and you have facendo, dicendo, bevendo.