A participle that is usually a word in its own right
Un film emozionante, acqua corrente, il cantante: all three expressions contain the same verb form. emozionante comes from emozionare, corrente from correre, cantante from cantare. That is the participio presente.
In modern Italian it has set solid: almost every word in -ante or -ente is listed in the dictionary as an adjective or a noun. You need to recognise these words and use them correctly, but you do not coin new ones.
What the form looks like
The stem takes -ante for verbs in -are and -ente for verbs in -ere and -ire.
Stem plus ending
The three conjugations
| Verb | Participio presente | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| cantare | cantante | singer |
| emozionare | emozionante | moving, gripping |
| correre | corrente | running (water), current |
| divertire | divertente | funny, entertaining |
| seguire | seguente | following |
Agreement: number only, never gender
The participio presente behaves like an adjective in -e, such as grande or felice: singular in -e, plural in -i. Masculine and feminine look the same, and there is no form in -a. English adjectives never change, so this is a habit to build from zero, but this class only ever asks one question: one or more than one?
emozionante in four settings
| Noun | Form | English |
|---|---|---|
| il film (masc. sg.) | un film emozionante | a moving film |
| la storia (fem. sg.) | una storia emozionante | a moving story |
| i film (masc. pl.) | film emozionanti | moving films |
| le storie (fem. pl.) | storie emozionanti | moving stories |
Adjective or noun
In everyday Italian the participio presente comes in two shapes: as an adjective, usually after the noun, and as a noun, usually naming a person.
As an adjective
È stato un film davvero emozionante.
It was a really moving film.
Nella casa non c'era acqua corrente.
The house had no running water.
Ho letto due libri molto interessanti.
I read two very interesting books.
As a noun
The ending stays, the article shows the gender: il cantante and la cantante. English has the same frozen Latin participles: student, president, resident, assistant are studente, presidente, residente, assistente.
La cantante ha una voce splendida.
The singer has a wonderful voice.
Un passante mi ha aiutato a trovare la strada.
A passer-by helped me find the way.
Il paese ha solo trecento abitanti.
The village has only three hundred inhabitants.
The rare case: still a real verb form
In official documents, statutes and public announcements the participio presente survives as a verb form. You spot it because it takes an object or a complement, the way a relative clause would. English legal writing does the same (persons having the right to vote), but in Italian these phrases stay in officialese.
What the relative clause would say
Il treno proveniente da Milano viaggia con venti minuti di ritardo.
The train arriving from Milan is running twenty minutes late.
station announcement
I cittadini aventi diritto possono votare fino alle 23.
Citizens entitled to vote may do so until 11 p.m.
official notice
You want to understand these phrases, but in conversation they sound stiff. Say il treno che viene da Milano instead.
English -ing and its Italian counterparts
English -ing is free to build from any verb: the sleeping child, he answered laughing, the following week. Italian spreads these jobs over three tools, and only one of them is the participio presente.
One English pattern, three Italian answers
Action → relative clause
If the -ing form describes what somebody is doing, Italian takes che plus a conjugated verb. This is the normal case, and Italian cannot leave out the che.
il bambino che dorme
the sleeping child
una donna che canta in strada
a woman singing in the street
Manner → gerundio
If the -ing form says how somebody does something, Italian uses the gerundio in -ando or -endo. It attaches to the verb, never to a noun.
Mi ha risposto ridendo.
He answered me laughing.
Fixed property → participio presente
Only when the word really exists in Italian do you use the form in -ante or -ente.
il giorno seguente
the following day
un discorso convincente
a convincing speech
