{"id":6989,"date":"2014-08-29T15:38:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-29T15:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=6989"},"modified":"2014-08-29T15:38:57","modified_gmt":"2014-08-29T15:38:57","slug":"using-essere-and-stare-in-the-past-tense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/using-essere-and-stare-in-the-past-tense\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Essere and Stare in the Past Tense"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently I received a comment from a reader asking<\/em> about the correct use of the imperfect and present perfect of essere<\/strong> and stare<\/strong>. Here is my reply:<\/em><\/p>\n

Firstly, if you want to revise the difference between essere<\/strong> and stare<\/strong>, you can read THIS BLOG<\/font><\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/font>. Now let\u2019s have a look at their use in the imperfetto<\/strong> (imperfect tense)<\/font> and the passato<\/strong> prossimo <\/strong>(present perfect)<\/font>. Allora, we\u2019ll start with the verb stare<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong><\/font>To talk about somebody\u2019s health<\/u> we use stare <\/strong>followed by the adverbs bene<\/strong> (well), male<\/strong> (bad), meglio<\/strong> (better), peggio<\/strong> (worse), and so on. <\/font><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a short conversation  which uses the imperfect tense<\/font> (stava<\/font>):
Maria: \u201dCiao Laura, sai come sta Giorgio?\u201d<\/strong> (Maria: \u201cHi Laura, do you know how Giorgio is?\u201d)
Laura: \u201c<\/strong>l\u2019ultima volta che l\u2019ho visto non stava<\/font> tanto bene\u201d<\/strong> (Laura: \u201cthe last time I saw him he wasn\u2019t very well\u201d. Imperfect<\/font><\/em>)<\/p>\n

Now here\u2019s an example of the passato prossimo <\/font>(\u00e8 stato<\/font>):
Maria: \u201dCiao Laura, sai come sta Giorgio?\u201d<\/strong> (Maria: \u201cHi Laura, do you know how Giorgio is?\u201d)
Laura: \u201cS\u00ec, so che \u00e8 stato<\/font> male, ma mi hanno detto che ora sta meglio\u201d<\/strong> (Laura: \u201cYes, I know he has been unwell, but I\u2019ve heard that he\u2019s feeling better now\u201d. Present perfect<\/em><\/font>)<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong><\/font> To explain where we used to stay\/stayed<\/font><\/u> <\/font>we use stare<\/strong> followed by the location: <\/font><\/p>\n

da bambina l\u2019estate stavo<\/font> dai miei nonni<\/strong> (when I was a child I used to stay at my grandparents in the summer. Imperfect<\/font><\/em>)
quando siamo andati a Ravenna siamo stati<\/font> all\u2019Ostello della Giovent\u00f9<\/strong> (when we went to Ravenna we stayed at the Youth Hostel. Present perfect<\/font><\/em>)<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s look at the use of the verb essere<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> To describe people, places and situations<\/font><\/u> <\/font>we use the imperfect<\/font> tense of essere<\/strong>: <\/font><\/p>\n

mio padre era<\/font> figlio unico<\/strong> (my father was an only child.)
la casa dove sono nata era<\/font> molto grande e intorno c\u2019erano<\/font> molti alberi<\/strong> (the house where I was born was very big and around it there were many trees.)
era<\/font> una notte buia e tempestosa \u2026<\/strong> (it was a dark and stormy night \u2026)<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n
\"Snoopy_It_Was_Dark_And_Stormy_Night\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Listen to:<\/font><\/strong> era una notte buia e tempestosa \u2026 (it was a dark and stormy night \u2026)<\/font><\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

4.<\/strong> To talk about an event that is now over<\/u><\/font> w<\/font>e use the present perfect<\/font> of essere<\/strong>: <\/font><\/p>\n

\u00e8 stata<\/font> una bella festa<\/strong> (it was a lovely party<\/em>)
lo scorso inverno \u00e8 stato<\/font> molto mite <\/strong>(last winter was very mild<\/em>)<\/p>\n

P.S.<\/strong> As you may have noticed, a main source of confusion is the fact that the verbs stare<\/strong> and essere<\/strong> use the same <\/strong>passato prossimo<\/strong> (present perfect), for example, sono stato\/a<\/strong>  can mean either \u2018I was\u2019 or \u2018I stayed\u2019, and siamo stati\/e<\/strong> can mean either \u2018we were\u2019 or \u2018we stayed\u2019. In most cases the meaning is clear from the context:
Quando Giorgio era a Napoli \u00e8 stato<\/u><\/font> <\/strong>a casa di sua zia <\/strong>(When Giorgio was in Naples he stayed<\/u> at his aunt\u2019s house Present perfect of the verb stare<\/em>)
\u00e8 stato<\/u><\/font> <\/strong><\/font>un pomeriggio molto caldo<\/strong> (it was<\/u> a very hot afternoon. Present perfect of the verb essere<\/em>)
<\/font>In other cases the two verbs are more or less interchangeable:
siamo stati<\/font> a Ravenna tre giorni<\/strong> (we were\/stayed in Ravenna for three days<\/em>)
sono stata<\/font> tutto il pomeriggio in casa<\/strong> (I was\/stayed in all afternoon<\/em>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Recently I received a comment from a reader asking about the correct use of the imperfect and present perfect of essere and stare. Here is my reply: Firstly, if you want to revise the difference between essere and stare, you can read THIS BLOG. Now let\u2019s have a look at their use in the imperfetto…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":6997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[686,292220,351062],"class_list":["post-6989","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar","tag-essere-and-stare","tag-imperfetto-e-passato-prossimo","tag-italian-verbs"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6989"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7010,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6989\/revisions\/7010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}