When you have spoken a language all your life (and are not a language nerd), there are certain things you just don't think about. 

When you learn a new language, certain things are tricky, such as, for example, the Italian way of skipping the pronoun when it's not essential. Italians don't have to think about it. The verb conjugation gives you the information you need. If you have studied Latin, that's not so strange. But if you come from English, it's a challenging concept to be able to grasp.

And then there are tenses. Not all languages think of tenses in the same way. For instance, English speakers might have trouble with il passato remoto because it doesn't exist in English as distinct from the simple past. And we might translate it the same way as we translate a different tense, such as the imperfetto or the passato prossimo.

This brings us to a tense or mood that is a bit strange to English speakers. We generally feel pretty familiar with the past participle of a verb that can be used either as part of a compound tense or as an adjective. It's used in a similar way in English.

È uscito dall'ospedale, però è ancora un po' confuso.

He's out of the hospital but he's still kind of confused.

Caption 41, Il Commissario Manara S2EP2 - L'addio di Lara - Part 7

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No, m'hanno licenziato loro, perché ho confuso il mangime delle anguille con il veleno per topi.

No, they fired me, because I mistook rat poison for eel feed.

Captions 51-52, Sei mai stata sulla Luna? film - Part 19

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The present participle is something else altogether. Most of the time, we will see the participio presente (which has the -ante or -ente ending) used as an adjective or a noun. We don't think about it much because the word has entered general usage as an adjective or noun. We can identify it as a participio presente because we can replace it with che and the conjugated verb form to reach the same meaning.

Let's look at a couple of words in this category.

A present participle functioning as an adjective:

interessante (che interessa) - interesting (that interests)

promettente (che promette) - promising (that promises)

Perché un suo abitante, Martino Piccione, giovane chitarrista promettente, è sparito nel nulla senza lasciare traccia.

Because one of its inhabitants, Martino Piccione — young, promising guitarist — has vanished into thin air, without leaving a trace.

Captions 4-6, Chi m'ha visto film - Part 15

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Note that in English, these adjectives often have the -ing ending. 

A present participle functioning as a noun:

il cantante ([la persona] che canta]) - the singer ([the person] who sings)

la sorgente (che sorge) - the source

l'abitante (che abita) - the inhabitant (the person who inhabits)

The tricky thing is that the -ing ending in English is also used to translate Italian words that have an -ando or -endo ending. These endings have to do with the presente progressivo (the present continuous or progressive).

Here's the example that prompted one of our viewers to ask about this:

Possiamo trovare il cerro, che è l'albero dominante il bosco,

We can find the turkey oak, which is the tree prevailing over the forest,

Caption 47, In giro per l'Italia La Valle del Sorbo

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We could say che è l'albero che domina il bosco.

Hopefully, you get the idea. You don't need to dwell on this, as you will get along fine without using the present participle as a verb most of the time. But when we come across it in a video, we need to know how to translate it (it was tricky!) and some people are just plain curious!

Poi is a short word, and it's an adverb, but it is used extremely often, and more often than not, it means something other than its basic translation of "then." The English word "then" is also one of those words we find in all sorts of situations, meaning various things. Sometimes it's tricky to find the "right" English equivalent of poi, since it is also used as a kind of filler word in Italian.

Let's look at the dictionary definition of poi. The first definition is "then." How helpful is that? Not so helpful, except in the most basic cases.

At its most basic, poi may be used like "then" to put things in order, in a series. For example, if you are giving someone instructions, you will use "Then you do this..." The same thing can be done in Italian. Here, Daniela is listing the colors and how they work in Italian.

I colori positivi sono: grigio.

The positive colors are: gray.

Grigio. La maglia di Sandra è grigia.

Gray. Sandra's sweater is gray.

Poi abbiamo il nero.

Then we have "nero" (black).

La mia maglia è nera.

My sweater is black.

Poi abbiamo la maglia di Ingeborg che è... bianca.

Then we have Ingeborg's sweater, which is... white.

Captions 4-8, Corso di italiano con Daniela - I colori

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When someone is telling a story, you might ask:

E poi cosa è successo?

And then what happened?

Caption 30, Acqua in bocca - Rapimento e riscatto - Ep 12

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But poi can also mean later. Maybe the easiest way to remember this is in the expression prima o poi (sooner or later).

Se nascevo da un'altra parte,

If I was [had been] born somewhere else,

prima o poi, il destino bussava.

sooner or later, destiny would have come knocking.

Caption 20, Chi m'ha visto - film

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Speaking of expressions, another one that's used a lot is d'ora in poi from now on:

Siamo una cinquantina

There are about fifty of us

e siamo tutti pronti ad avere,

and we are ready to have,

d'ora in poi, come soli referenti voi.

from now on, you as our sole representative,

Captions 24-25, Adriano Olivetti - La forza di un sogno Ep.2

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In other words, we're talking about "later than this moment," or "henceforth." But we can also say da quel moment in poi, when we're talking about the past or the future — from then on, from that moment forward.

Sometimes poi is used like "besides," "in the end," "all in all."

Poi, adesso che ha deciso di candidarsi alle elezioni,

Besides, now that he has decided to run for election,

ha in testa soltanto la politica e il Movimento Comunità.

he has only politics and the Community Movement in mind.

Captions 4-5, Adriano Olivetti - La forza di un sogno Ep.2

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In the following example, we could even leave poi out, and the sentence would make sense.

...perché questo serve per

...because this serves to

rendere ermetica la chiusura,

create the hermetic seal,

quindi non far entrare l'aria,

meaning it doesn't let in any air,

che poi è quella che va a far deteriorare la marmellata.

which is, in the end, what makes the jam deteriorate.

Captions 75-78, Andromeda - Marmellata anti spreco

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So, often, poi is just used as filler. In fact, here, it's even left out of the translation, because del resto is already complete. But poi embellishes it a bit, to mean "also" or "too."

Come prosciutto e melone poi del resto, però la mozzarella...

Like cured ham and melon, for that matter, but mozzarella...

Caption 23, Anna e Marika - La mozzarella di bufala - La produzione e i tagli

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We have just scratched the surface. If you find instances of poi that you don't understand, please let us know and we will add on to this lesson.