In one of Daniela’s recent lessons, she covers an important modo di dire (figure of speech): stare per (to be about to).
Sto per cadere (I'm about to fall).
But let’s also take a closer look at the verb stare (to be). It’s so similar to essere (to be) and translates much the same way, but if we think of the word “state,” as in “the state of things,” so close in spelling to stare, it might help us see what this verb is about.
The state can be physical—how someone looks:
Anche tu, stai proprio bene.
You look really good, too.
-Grazie... però tu hai un volto molto riposato e...
-Thanks... but you have a very rested face [you look rested] and...
Captions 3-4, Anna e Marika - Villa Torlonia - La Casina delle Civette
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Come sto con questo vestito?
How do I look in this dress?
It can be about how someone feels—about their state of health or happiness.
Come stai? How are you?
Sto bene (I’m good, I’m fine, I’m well, cured, healed).
Sta male. (He/she is ill, distraught, overtired, etc.)
Stare is often used in command forms that translate as “to be.”
Stai attento. Bene, bravo, bravo!
Be watchful [be careful]. Good, brilliant, brilliant!
Caption 36, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP2 - Vendemmia tardiva - Part 6
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Lara, io... -Stai zitta, non dire niente.
Lara, I... -Be quiet, don't say a thing.
Caption 1, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP4 - Le Lettere Di Leopardi - Part 13
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We use stare for other commands like:
Stai tranquillo (be in a state of tranquillity [don’t worry])
Stai fermo (be still)
Stai qui (stay here)
We also use stare to construct the presente progressivo (present continuous/progressive) in Italian. We conjugate the verb stare and follow it with the gerundio (gerund) of the verb of our choosing.
Stiamo cercando di risalire al proprietario
We're trying to trace the owner
attraverso il numero del telaio.
through the chassis serial number.
Caption 50, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP2 - Vendemmia tardiva - Part 7
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'Sto [questo] posto mi sta distruggendo.
This place is destroying me.
Caption 6, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP2 - Vendemmia tardiva - Part 7
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Although Italian tenses don’t always correspond to English ones as we would expect, the present progressive is an important tense in Italian. Marika explains it here.
Practice:
Stare is an ever-present, very important verb to be familiar with. When you get up in the morning, think about how you feel, how you look, what you’re doing at the moment, and what you are about to do. You can use stare for all these considerations. Here’s an example to get you started.
Ho dormito bene, quindi sto abbastanza bene, ma di sicuro non sto bene con i capelli così in disordine. Sto pensando alla mia colazione. Sto per mangiare gli ultimi biscotti, quindi ne dovrò comprare degli altri. Tutti questi biscotti mi stanno facendo ingrassare.
I slept well, so I feel all right, but for sure I don’t look good with my hair so messy. I’m thinking about my breakfast. I’m about to eat up the last cookies, so I will have to buy more of them. All these cookies are making me gain weight.
Daniela has concluded her three-part lesson on the passato prossimo (present perfect) tense. Get caught up here! She gives us some very important information about its construction, but what’s difficult for many of us is just knowing which auxiliary verb to use—essere (to be) or avere (to have)—when using the passato prossimo.
In fact, there’s plenty of gray area, which we’ll delve into further on, but very generally speaking, when the verb is transitive (can take a direct object), the auxiliary verb is avere (to have) and when the verb is intransitive (cannot take a direct object), the auxiliary verb is essere (to be).
The following example contains the direct object film (movie). So we use avere.
Hai guardato il film?
Did you watch the movie?
Caption 15, Marika spiega - I pronomi diretti con participio passato
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In the next example the first verb venire (to come) is intransitive, has no direct object, and thus takes the auxiliary verb essere. The second verb portare (to bring, to carry) is transitive, having a direct object, and thus takes avere. Note that acqua (water) is the direct object of the verb portare.
Il cameriere è venuto e ci ha portato dell'acqua naturale.
The waiter came and he brought us still water.
Caption 20, Anna e Marika - Trattoria Al Biondo Tevere
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What about if Anna and Marika had had a cameriera (waitress)?*
In the example below, there’s a direct object (Lara) in the first part, and a verb (intransitive) that can’t take an object (arrivare) in the second part. Lara is a woman, so the ending of arrivata has the feminine singular ending -a.
Hai visto Lara? -Lara non è ancora arrivata, no.
Have you seen Lara? -Lara hasn't gotten here yet, no.
Caption 38, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP4 - Le Lettere Di Leopardi
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Can you make up a sentence changing the person to Luca (a man)? The first part with avere will not change, but the second part with essere will!**
Can you change the person to two people?***
Attenzione! Intransitive verbs have a great many exceptions to the general rule. Strange as it may seem, some of these verbs have to do with movement:
Camminare (to walk), correre (to run), sciare (to ski), and nuotare (to swim), among others, are intransitive action verbs, but nevertheless take avere when referring to the activity itself.
Ho camminato tutto il giorno.
I walked all day.
Loro hanno corso tre chilometri.
They ran three kilometers.
However, when correre is used to mean “to hurry,” “to rush,” then it takes essere!
Io sono corsa a casa.
I rushed home.
See this resource (in Italian) for a list of intransitive verbs and the auxiliaries they use.
There are two other important situations to be aware of, requiring the use of the auxiliary essere in “perfect” tenses: reflexive verbs and verbs in the passive voice. We’ll have a closer look at them in another lesson.
Solutions:
*
La cameriera è venuta e ci ha portato dell'acqua naturale.
The waitress came and she brought us some still water.**
Hai visto Luca? -Luca non è ancora arrivato, no.
Have you seen Luca? -Luca hasn't gotten here yet, no.***
Hai visto Luca e Lara? -Loro non sono ancora arrivati, no.
Have you seen Luca and Lara? -They haven't gotten here yet, no.
Further Resources:
For an explanation of verbi transitivi e intransitivi in Italian, see this article.
Here is a text with many examples of il passato prossimo, and a fill-in-the-blank quiz following it.
Practice:
- Have a look at some Yabla video transcripts or other Italian written text, and try to identify the two kinds of verbs and their auxiliaries in any given situation.
- Do a Yabla video search of the participle of a transitive verb, such as visto, the past participle of vedere (to see), and you’ll see a list of examples from videos containing compound tenses with this participle. Go to the videos, or just read the examples out loud to get a feel for the auxiliary verb avere.
- Be aware that there may be some exceptions in the list: a passive voice, a noun form, a reflexive form in the masculine, a transitive verb used intransitively, an adjective form of a participle.
- For intransitive verbs taking essere, try doing a search on the participles of these verbs: andare, venire, partire, arrivare, diventare. Remember that their endings will change depending on gender and number. You’ll see right away that the auxiliary is essere, conjugated per the person and the tense (it might be past perfect).
A Yabla subscriber has asked to know more about the popular short word anzi (rather, on the contrary, in fact, indeed). In fact, it's hard to pin down a one-word meaning for anzi that works all of the time. Aside from its various uses and connotations as a single conjunction, anzi is also part of important compound words such as anziché (rather than), innanzitutto (first and foremost, first of all) among others, and has some archaic definitions and grammatical categories we can safely overlook for now.
The important thing is to be able to understand and use anzi when appropriate. So let’s look at some of the ways anzi fits into sentences.
One handy way to use anzi is when you say something, and you correct yourself right away. In English you’d say “or rather,” or “I mean.” In our first example, Andromeda corrects herself on the fly. Regalare (to give as a gift) wasn’t quite the word she was looking for. Then she found it: affidare (to entrust).
Abbiamo dovuto regalare, anzi,
We had to give away, or rather,
affidare Dorian alla nonna dei miei figli.
entrust Dorian to the grandmother of my children.
Caption 19, Andromeda - e i gatti 2
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In the next example, anzi contradicts a negative statement with something positive. In this situation, it’s not even necessary to finish the sentence after anzi; we already know, because of its presence, that we’re contradicting whatever negativity came before.
Non è per niente male vivere in Italia, anzi!
It's not at all bad living in Italy, on the contrary!
Caption 54, Francesca - sulla spiaggia
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If Francesca were to complete her sentence, she’d say something like:
Non è per niente male vivere in Italia, anzi, è fantastico!
It's not at all bad living in Italy, on the contrary, it’s great!
Anzi, said with a certain inflection, raise of an eyebrow, or nod of a head, lets you avoid having to search for the right word!
In this next example, Lara’s aunt is telling her that what she believes about Luca is actually the opposite of how things really stand. So once again, anzi is used to contradict.
Penserà che sono una stupida.
He'll think I'm an idiot.
-Ma no, no, ma quando mai!
-But no, no, out of the question!
Anzi, dice sempre che sei speciale!
On the contrary, he's always saying that you're special!
Captions 8-10, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP4 - Le Lettere Di Leopardi
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In the following example, as he dreams of his vacation in Sicily, Manara first mentions two brioches, then thinks better of it and changes the quantity to four. He didn't make a mistake, and he's not exactly contradicting himself, but he is reconsidering. This is a classic example of how people use anzi.
Mi mangio due granite caffè con panna
I'll eat my two coffee Italian ices with whipped cream
e due brioche, anzi, quattro.
and two brioches, no, four.
Caption 30, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP6 - Reazione a Catena
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Even in this classic case, there isn’t just one way to translate anzi. Other expressions can do the job:
Come to think of it, I’ll have four.
I’ll have two. No, make that four.
Actually, I’ll have four.
Then again, I’ll have four.
Better yet, I’ll have four.
Hopefully you’ve gotten the gist of some of the ways anzi works, and how useful it can be. So far, anzi has helped to change one’s mind, or someone else’s. We’ll soon be back with still more ways to use anzi. We’ll discuss how anzi can reinforce an adjective or idea, and how it can introduce a new idea related to what’s come before. And then we'll put them all together just for fun!
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