we use costando, but being a gerund the sentence must be constructed like this: Le recenti pioggie in Giappone stanno costando la vita a molte persone. So you need the verb "stare" (in this case present tense,3d plural person) Turning the phrase in the past it could be: Le insistenti piogge di quel periodo stavano costando la vita a molte persone. So "stare"+ gerund is similar to a progressive tense in English. We can also use a gerund in this way: Costando così tanto ne compreremo di meno. Facendo coì caldo decidemmo di andare a farci un bagno. Invece che, e invece di, are similar. Personally, I tend to prefer invece di. Invece che dirmi cosa devo fare,fallo tu! Invece di dirmi cosa devo fare,fallo tu! It's hard to compare two languages with different roots like English and Italian. In Italian, the placement of the word is more flexible than in English I'd like to share this website: https://www.dizy.com/ in which you can find a lot of examples of usages of a single word just typing it in the searching toolbar. I hope this helps you.

1) Hi, I regret, the correct translation in this case should be "having costed the lives" (concluded action), which is referred to "alluvions" , here shifting from Object to Subject in a subordinate clause) - so you have to read: - che hanno portato alluvioni .... ; Queste alluvioni sono costate la vita ..." This technically is the difference between Italian - which prefers long and structred sentences; and an Anglo-saxon syntax -- made with many independent sentences which might repeat the Subject each time. This phenomenon is very important because if I wrote an english CV with an italian syntax, that might even appear "treacherous" to a British reader. 2) Invece DI (+ infinite) -- and Invece CHE (+ infinite), are equivalent. Bye

The first one in an idiomatic expression, meaning that this verb is often used with the following noun to express a precise concept. "Mi è costato un occhio della testa" = it cost me an arm and a leg. "Mi è costato una fortuna" = (the same as above) In this case, it means that several people have died. This idiomatic expression is used especially when talking about accidents, natural disaster and the like. Ex:" Un sorpasso pericoloso gli è costato la vita". "Quello stupido errore gli è costato la vita" The second expression means "instead of". Ex: "Sarei andato al mare invece che in montagna" = I would have gone to the sea, instead of the mountain. I hope the translation is right!