How and When to Use “Stare” in Italian

The Italian verb stare is a versatile and essential component of everyday conversation. Often translated as “to stay” or “to be,“ stare can convey a range of meanings, from indicating physical location to expressing emotional states.

Understanding how to use stare is key to expressing yourself clearly and accurately in Italian, so let’s dig into its various uses and conjugations.

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What Is Stare in Italian?

The direct translation of stare is “to stay,” as in to physically remain someplace. That definition is similar to the English version, but it comes with another meaning on top of that. Stare can also connote states of being or feeling.

You might recognize it from one of the most common phrases in the Italian language: Come stai?  or the more formal Come sta?  Both of these phrases use stare to ask “How are you?” but the direct translation is “How are you staying?” 

It’s important to remember is that stare is an irregular verb. This means it follows a non-standard conjugation pattern, and you can’t just plug in verb conjugations that you see in regular verbs. Let’s see how to conjugate this irregular verb.

Conjugating the Italian Verb Stare

Here are the conjugations of stare in some of the main verb tenses:

For a full list of conjugations of stare, visit verbi-italiani.info.

Using Stare in Italian

Stare is used in a variety of ways, and we’ll go over each one below. As there are multiple applications for using this verb and lots of situations where it can come up, it helps to see how native speakers use it.

For example, you could read Italian literature, or you could also try using an immersion program like FluentU to search for this verb and find videos where it appears in context.

It can be a little difficult to get a handle on words with multiple meanings when you’re learning another language. Just remember that context is key. Paying attention to when and how this verb is used by people who know the language well can make a big difference. 

Using Stare to Talk About States of Being

Remember Come stai? Answering this question uses stare as well. Here are some examples of phrases that you might use to answer that question, shown in dialogue format.

Example Dialogue 1:

Ciao! Come stai? (Hello! How are you!)

Sto bene, grazie. E tu? (I’m fine, thanks. And you?)

Tutto bene! (Everything’s fine!)

Example Dialogue 2: 

Ah, Marco, non ti senti bene oggi. Come stai? (Ah, Marco, you don’t look so good today. How are you?)

Sto male. Ho la tosse. (I’m sick. I have a cough.)

La tosse? Che peccato! (A cough? That’s too bad!)

These dialogues both used the conjugation sto, which means “I stay” when translated literally. In these contexts, however, it’s used to express states of being such as feelings or health.

It helps to think of stare as a way to declare your “status.” One of the Italian words for status, stato, even doubles as one of the conjugations for the verb (specifically, in the past perfect tense).

Using Stare to Indicate Location

Remember that stare can be used in a literal sense, to tell where a person is physically staying. This is pretty straightforward: Just use the verb to indicate where a person might be staying or living at a particular moment.

Here are some sample sentences for that context:

Tu stai a Milano stasera? (You’re in Milan this evening?)

Noi stiamo a casa di mia madre. (We’re staying at my mother’s house.)

Using Stare as a Command

When using stare as a command, you’re instructing or telling someone to be a certain way—to take on a specific state, as it were. Here are some examples of how that might look in practice:

Stai fermo! (Stay still!)

Stai attento, per piacere. (Be careful, please.)

Using Stare in the Present Continuous

The present continuous tense is used rather specifically, to indicate something that’s happening in the moment. It doesn’t get a lot of use in Italian, but it’s one of the major uses of stare.

In this tense, you use stare in conjunction with whatever the person is doing to show that it’s being done at that very moment. To form this tense, stare is conjugated in the present tense with the action verb in the gerund form. 

Let’s look at some examples:

Io sto andando al cinema. (I’m going to the movies.)

Noi stiamo mangiando. (We’re eating.)

Using Stare to Talk About Appearance

Finally, you can use stare to express how things appear. This is pretty straightforward: in context, stare says how something looks to a speaker.

Here are some examples of this in practice:

Quella giacca ti sta proprio bene. (That jacket looks really good on you.)

Come sto? (How do I look?)

Now that we’ve covered the variety of ways you can use this verb, let’s look at some finer details.

Confusing Verb Pairs

The verbs you’ll run into the most often when talking about states of being are stare, avere  and essere , which can all mean “to be.” Let’s take a look at when to use each of these verbs. 

Stare vs. Avere

As we’ve gone over, stare can be used to talk about a person’s situation or state of being. However, when talking about certain feelings or states, the use of the verb avere (to have) is required instead.

For example, when you’re hungry or thirsty, you say:

Ho fame. (I’m hungry. Literally: “I have hunger”)

Ho sete. (I’m thirsty. Literally, “I have thirst”)

This might seem familiar to you if you speak other languages like German or Spanish, which use similar phrases like Ich habe Hunger or Tengo sed, all of which also have the same literal translations as the examples above.

It helps to pay attention again to context and notice which terms are used when. While avere is only used for hunger and thirst to indicate a state of being, you might run into a little more confusion with essere (to be).

Stare vs. Essere

Stare can also be confused with essere, as they can both translate to “to be.” Here are the main uses of essere: 

• To describe essential characteristics, identity, or profession. For example: Sono un insegnante  (I’m a teacher).
• To describe permanent states or attributes. For example: Il cielo è blu (The sky is blue).
• To indicate where something or someone is located in a more static sense or as a destination. For example: La scuola è in centro  (The school is downtown).
• To form the passive voice. For example: Il libro è scritto da Paolo (The book is written by Paolo).
• To express time, dates, and events. For example: Oggi è lunedì (Today is Monday).

We can say that, generally, we use essere to talk about permanent states and stare for temporary situations, but this isn’t always the case. Check out this post for more information on how to distinguish these two verbs. 

Now that you’re armed with the basics, it’s time for you to go out and use, read and say stare and its particularly useful conjugations.

You can say a lot with this nifty little verb and this post only scratches the surface, so dig deep into your Italian media and conversations to see firsthand how it works in practice.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

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