{"id":83,"date":"2009-01-29T12:36:56","date_gmt":"2009-01-29T16:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=83"},"modified":"2018-09-12T13:40:40","modified_gmt":"2018-09-12T11:40:40","slug":"essere-o-stare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/essere-o-stare\/","title":{"rendered":"Essere o Stare?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently received an e-mail from a reader asking if I could explain the difference between essere<\/strong> and stare<\/strong> and how they are used. I got out my faithful Vocabolario della Lingua Italiana Treccani<\/strong> and \u2026 oh povera me!<\/strong> (poor me!) Under the entry stare<\/strong> there are 5 columns of information and for essere<\/strong>? well \u2018only\u2019 3! So having digested all that information I\u2019ll attempt to illustrate the main uses of these two verbs, but please note that this is not by any means an exhaustive or definitive answer.<\/p>\n

As a general rule\u00a0it can be said that essere <\/strong>means \u201cto be\u201d, and stare <\/strong>means \u201cto stay\u201d, however they assume different meanings in particular constructions and in some idiomatic expressions:<\/p>\n

Stare is always used,\u00a0when\u00a0followed by\u00a0bene<\/strong>, male<\/strong>, meglio<\/strong>, or peggio<\/strong>,\u00a0 to talk about somebody\u2019s health and is, therefore, also used in greetings such as: Ciao, come stai? <\/strong>(Hello, how are you?) Sto bene, grazie<\/strong> (I\u2019m fine, thank you). Come sta tuo fratello? <\/strong>(How is your brother?) Sta meglio, grazie <\/strong>(He\u2019s better, thank you).<\/p>\n

Stare bene<\/strong> with an indirect pronoun (dative)\u00a0means \u201cit suits you\u201d: questo vestito<\/strong> ti sta bene<\/strong> (this dress suits you); il colore marrone non mi sta bene <\/strong>(the colour brown doesn\u2019t suit me).<\/p>\n

E\u2019 bene\/male\u00a0means<\/strong>, on the other hand, \u201cit\u2019s a good\/ bad thing\u201d: \u00e8 bene non mangiare troppo<\/strong> (it\u2019s a good thing not to eat too much). E\u2019 meglio\/peggio<\/strong> mean \u201cit\u2019s better\/worse\u201d: secondo me \u00e8 meglio andare in\u00a0treno<\/strong> (according to me, it\u2019s better to go by train).<\/p>\n

Stare per<\/strong> followed by an\u00a0infinitive means \u201cto be on the point of\/ just about to\u201d: ti stavo per telefonare<\/strong> (I was just about to call you).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also important to remember that stare<\/strong> and\u00a0essere<\/strong> are not interchangeable in the following constructions:<\/p>\n

stare followed by the gerundive expresses the present and past continuous: sto leggendo un libro<\/strong> (I\u2019m reading a book); Giovanni \u00e8 arrivato mentre stavo cenando<\/strong> (Giovanni arrived while I was having dinner).<\/p>\n

\"pizza\"<\/a>

Image by Alessandro Fiorotto in Flickr.com is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.<\/p><\/div>\n

Essere <\/strong>is always used as a\u00a0verbo ausiliare<\/strong>\u00a0(auxiliary verb, or helper) in:<\/p>\n

the\u00a0passive form: la pizza<\/strong> \u00e8 cotta nel forno<\/strong> (pizza is baked in the oven); l\u2019albero \u00e8 stato tagliato<\/strong> (the tree has been cut down);<\/p>\n

combined past tenses of all the reflexive verbs: mi sono lavata le mani<\/strong> (I washed my hands);<\/p>\n

combined past tenses of many intransitive verbs: Giovanni<\/strong> \u00e8 andato al cinema<\/strong> (Giovanni went to the cinema).<\/p>\n

There are some situations when essere <\/strong>and stare <\/strong>are interchangeable, in particular when talking about a\u00a0location: la casa \u00e8 in cima alla collina<\/strong> or la casa sta in cima alla collina<\/strong> (the house is on the top of the hill); l\u2019appartamento \u00e8 al quinto piano<\/strong> or l\u2019appartamento sta al quinto piano<\/strong> (the apartment is on the fifth floor).\u00a0Both verbs\u00a0are also synonymous\u00a0with the meaning of restare<\/strong>, rimanere <\/strong>(to stay, to remain): oggi sono in casa<\/strong> or oggi sto in casa<\/strong>\u00a0(today\u00a0I\u2019ll\u00a0be at home); dalle\u00a0nove a mezzogiorno sono in ufficio<\/strong> or dalle nove a mezzogiorno sto in ufficio<\/strong> (from nine to midday I\u2019ll be in the office). This interchangeability is however mostly a regional preference, i.e. some regions of Italy will use essere <\/strong>in preference to stare <\/strong>in the preceding examples, and vice versa.<\/p>\n

I hope\u00a0I\u2019ve succeeded in shedding a bit of light\u00a0on this confusing subject but,\u00a0as I said, this is just a small summary of the hundreds of idiomatic expressions and constructions involving these two verbs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

I recently received an e-mail from a reader asking if I could explain the difference between essere and stare and how they are used. I got out my faithful Vocabolario della Lingua Italiana Treccani and \u2026 oh povera me! (poor me!) Under the entry stare there are 5 columns of information and for essere? well…<\/p>\n

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