Time and tenses

Italian uses one word, "tempo" (pl. "tempi") both for chronological time and for grammatical tenses, two concepts that are aptly kept apart in the Eng. language.

In fact, the relationships between time and tenses are complex and there are important differences between the Eng. and the It. verb systems.

The It. "presente indicativo" may refer to different times or aspects of time:

1. Indefinite duration, permanent state, and even eternity. Examples:
   Dio c'è e ci ama God exists and loves us
   La Gran Bretagna si trova a nord-ovest del continente europeo Great Britain lies to the north-west of the European mainland
   Quegli animali vivono in Africa Those animals live in Africa.

2. Habitual or repeated actions - not necessarily going on at the moment of speaking. Examples:
   Mi alzo alle sette tutte le mattine I get up at seven every morning
   Shirley studia Diritto a Milano Shirley studies Law in Milan
   La mia squadra preferita vince spesso My favourite team often wins

3. Actions going on at the moment of speaking; work in progress. Examples:
   Adesso piove forte It's raining hard now
   Quei bambini corrono nel parco Those children are running in the park
   In questi giorni il Governo ridefinisce la politica economica In these days, the Government are redifining their economic policy

4. Events that are about to happen or have been planned (the so-called "arranged future"). Examples
   Domani parto per Roma I'm leaving for Rome tomorrow
   Quelle nuvole dicono che tra poco piove Those clouds mean that it's going to rain soon
   Il nostro autobus arriva tra cinque minuti Our bus is arriving in five minutes.

5. Events or states that began some time ago and are still going on (the so-called "duration form"). Examples:
   Lucy vive in Italia da 25 anni Lucy has lived in Italy 25 years
   Phuong studia italiano dalle 14 Phuong has been studying Italian since 2 p.m.
   E' una settimana che piove It has been raining for a week.

Remarks

As the examples show, an It. "presente indicativo" may correspond to a simple present tense, a present continuous tense, a present perfect tense, a present perfect continuous tense, or to forms like "to be going to" or "to be about to" followed by the main verb.
As a consequence, the choice of the correct tense depends on the type of event, action or state that the verb refers to.

The differences may lead to misunderstandings. For example: "Sono stati sposati vent'anni" does NOT mean "They've been married for twenty years" but "They were married for twenty years" and that's over now. For something that is still going on, It. uses the present tense: "Sono sposati da vent'anni" "they've been married for twenty years."
For a full treatment of DURATION FORMS see

The good news is that most of the other verb tenses are not so flexible (and complex).