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Common Italian Verbs: “Essere” &”Stare” – 2 Ways of Saying “To Be” in Italian

kunkalFebruary 25, 2021June 18, 2021 Grammar, Verbs, Videos

Here are some videos that clearly explain the differences between these 2 very common Italian verbs. Their meaning is (in general):

Essere = to be

Stare = to stay/to be

But this is their basic meaning, you have to learn how to use them correctly in the videos below:

The easiest rule of thumb, even if it’s not all is to associate the meaning of “stare” with the English verb “to stay”.

Table of Contents

Conjugation of These 2 Common Italian Verbs

The Present Tense

PRONOUN	ESSERE	TO BE	STARE	TO STAY
Io	sono	I am	sto	I stay
Tu	sei	you are	stai	you stay
Lui, lei	è	he/she/it is	sta	he/she/it stays
Noi	siamo	we are	stiamo	we stay
Voi	siete	you are	state	you stay
Loro	sono	they are	stanno	they stay

The Past Tense

As you can see in the table below, the 2 verbs are exactly the same in the most common past tense used in Italian, the “passato prossimo” (simple past tense):

PRONOUN	ESSERE	TO BE	STARE	TO STAY
Io	sono stato	I have been	sono stato	I stayed
Tu	sei stato	you’ve been	sei stato	you stayed
Lui, lei	è stato	he/she/it has been	è stato	he/she/it stayed
Noi	siamo stati	we have been	siamo stati	we stayed
Voi	siete stato	you have been	siete stato	you stayed
Loro	sono stato	they have been	sono stato	they stayed

The Future Tense

PRONOUN	ESSERE	TO BE	STARE	TO STAY
Io	sarò	I will be	starò	I will stay
Tu	sarai	you are	starai	you will stay
Lui, lei	sarà	he/she/it is	starà	he/she/it will stays
Noi	saremo	we are	staremo	we will stay
Voi	sarete	you are	starete	you will stay
Loro	saranno	they are	staranno	they will stay