How can I derive a noun from the verb "percorrere"?

Question

I've observed that some nouns can be derived from Italian verbs by combining them with the suffix -aggio. For instance, "lavare" --> "lavaggio", "passare" --> "passaggio", "atterrare" --> "atterraggio", "monitorare" --> "monitoraggio". Is there a noun derived from "percorrere" in this or in another way?

I ask this because I've obtained the expression "monitoraggio di insieme" from Google Translate and I would like to change it into something with "percorrere" instead of "monitorare", something similar to "percorrere l'insieme" but with a noun instead of "percorrere".

Answer 1

Suffix -aggio is ​​indeed used to derive nouns from verbs, but, as explained by Treccani dictionary, this happens only with verbs whose infinitive finish in -are and not with all of them.

As said by @TommySimo in their comment, the word you are looking for is probably "percorso", which is the past participle of "percorrere", but also a noun which means route, way, path, itinerary, track, route..., both in a literal and figurative way. You can perfectly say "percorso di insieme".

As mentioned by @abarisone, there exists also the noun "percorrenza", but, as you can see in the linked dictionary, it's used more specifically for the way, distance or time traveled by a means of transport (for a train, for instance) in a given period of time.

Answer 2

Just a note, for completeness. The suffix -aggio is considered, by purists, a "francesismo" (French words or rules incorrectly applied to Italian). An old way, correct for purists, has suffix "-tura": for example, verb lavare would give lavatura. On the other hand, some of these inpure words are now so common that they must be accepted; people would laugh hearing lavatura instead of lavaggio (but they would understand correctly anyway).

There is not a fixed rule to obtain a substantive from a verb and sometimes it is impossible. A way, sometimes, is to use the suffix -zione: perlustrare -> perlustrazione, other times you can take the past participle.

With regard to your question about "percorrere l'insieme", "percorso" could do, but probably a native speaker would not express that way, preferring perhaps visione, analisi, scansione or still other words.

Answer 3

There's no general rule to build the noun from a verb. Italian derives from Latin, so most of those nouns also derive from Latin nouns. There are some suffix patterns like -aggio, but as I told you, there is no general rule.

For the verb "percorrere", the noun is percorso, which means "path".

Good luck with your Italian learning.