If you’re learning Italian, you’ve probably come across verb forms ending in -ando or -endo — and wondered exactly what they’re for. These are gerunds (gerundi), and they play a central role in the Italian language.

The gerund is one of those structures that, once you understand it, genuinely changes the way you speak. It lets you express simultaneity, cause, and manner — all in a single verb form, without having to build complex multi-clause sentences. Concise, elegant, and extremely common in everyday speech.

In English, you already use gerunds constantly (running, eating, working). But the Italian gerund works differently: it’s always used within a sentence alongside a main verb, more like the English -ing form in constructions such as “by doing”, “while working” or “having finished”.

The contexts, the formation rules and the position of pronouns all follow their own logic — and that’s exactly what you’ll discover in this article.

1. The present gerund: regular formation

Forming the present gerund in Italian is straightforward. It follows a regular pattern based on the verb’s ending:

• Verbs ending in -are → -ando: cercare → cercando
• Verbs ending in -ere → -endo: vedere → vedendo
• Verbs ending in -ire → -endo: dormire → dormendo / capire → capendo

The two auxiliary verbs form their gerunds like this:

• essere → essendo
• avere → avendo

One handy detail: the gerund is invariable. It never changes to agree with gender or number — which makes it one of the simpler Italian forms to use once you’ve learned it.

2. Irregular present gerunds

Some common verbs have an irregular stem in the gerund. The good news is that these aren’t random: in most cases, the irregular stem matches the noi form (first person plural) of the present indicative.

Infinitive	Gerund
bere	bevendo
dire	dicendo
fare	facendo
tradurre	traducendo
condurre	conducendo
porre	ponendo

Facendo and dicendo in particular come up all the time in real conversation. It’s well worth learning these early.

3. When to use the present gerund

The present gerund is used when the secondary action is simultaneous with the main action — in other words, both things are happening at the same time.

Here are some examples:

– Correndo, sono caduta. → Running, I fell. / I fell while running.
– Facendo esercizio, miglioro molto. → By exercising, I improve a lot.

Notice that in each case, both actions occur at the same time: the fall happens while running, the improvement happens while exercising. This is the key test for deciding whether the present gerund is the right form to use.

4. The past gerund (or compound gerund)

Italian also has a past gerund, known as the gerundio composto. It expresses an action that happened before the action of the main clause.

The past gerund is formed with:

Present gerund of avere or essere + past participle of the verb

• avendo lavorato (having worked)
• essendo arrivati (having arrived)

The rule for choosing the auxiliary is the same as for the passato prossimo (Italian’s main past tense) — for a full refresher, check out our dedicated article.

Some examples:

– Essendo arrivati in ritardo, abbiamo perso l’aereo. → Having arrived late, we missed the plane.
– Avendo cantato molto ieri, non ho più voce ora. → Having sung a lot yesterday, I’ve lost my voice.

In all of these cases, the action expressed by the past gerund clearly comes first — before whatever happens in the main clause.

5. An important rule: the subject of the gerund

In Italian, when a sentence contains a gerund, the subject of the gerund is assumed to be the same as the subject of the main clause. You don’t need to state it separately.

– Dormendo poco, è sempre stanco. → Sleeping little, he’s always tired. / Because he sleeps little, he’s always tired.

(The subject “he” applies to both verbs.)

But if the two subjects are different, the gerund’s subject must be stated explicitly:

– Essendo il treno pienissimo, il viaggio non è stato molto confortevole. → The train being packed, the journey wasn’t very comfortable.

Here, the gerund has its own subject (il treno), which is different from the subject of the main clause.

There is one well-known exception:

– Piovendo, resto a casa. → Since it’s raining, I’m staying home.

Since piovere is an impersonal verb (like “to rain”), there’s no subject to express — this is a perfectly standard and common construction.

6. What the gerund is used for

The gerund can serve different functions depending on context. Here are the two most important ones:

6.1 Causal function (answering “why?”)

The gerund expresses a cause or reason:

– Lavorando molto, non ha tempo di fare molte cose. → Because he works so much, he doesn’t have time for many things.
– Avendo avuto un incidente, è molto più attento ora. → Having had an accident, he’s much more careful now.

6.2 Temporal function (answering “when?”)

The gerund expresses a moment or circumstance:

– Andando a fare la spesa, ho incontrato Simona. → While going grocery shopping, I ran into Simona.
– Si è rotta la gamba pattinando. → She broke her leg while skating.

The same verb form can carry a slightly different meaning depending on context — that flexibility is precisely what makes the gerund so useful.

7. Pronoun placement with the gerund

This is a detail that trips up many learners, and it works differently depending on whether you’re using the present or past gerund.

7.1 With the present gerund

The pronoun always comes after the gerund, attached directly to it:

– Vestendosi in fretta, abbina sempre male i colori. → Getting dressed in a hurry, he always mismatches his colours.
– Alzandosi presto la mattina, va a dormire presto la sera. → By getting up early, he goes to bed early too.

7.2 With the past gerund

The pronoun comes after the auxiliary (avendo or essendo), not after the past participle:

– Essendoci andata ieri, oggi non ne ho voglia. → Having gone there yesterday, I don’t feel like it today.
– Avendomi sorpreso con un altro ragazzo, ha deciso di lasciarmi. → Having caught me with another guy, he decided to break up with me.

The key difference: with the present gerund, the pronoun attaches to the gerund itself; with the past gerund, it attaches to the auxiliary.

8. Want to go deeper?

The gerund is one of those structures that genuinely elevates your Italian. Used at the right moment, with the right form and pronouns in the right place, it allows you to build smoother, more natural sentences — the kind that sound like a real speaker, not a textbook.

Check out the full grammar sheet on the “Gerundio presente e passato” in the Sillabi resources to find all the rules, formation tables and additional examples organised by use.

9. Ready to take your Italian to the next level?

Understanding a rule is the first step. Making it automatic in your speech is a different challenge entirely — and that’s exactly what the Allegramente! course is designed for.

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