The Italian verb stare means "to stay, be". Below are its 7 tenses as tables, with the irregular forms marked, 4 example sentences and answers to 3 common questions. Press play next to a present tense form or an example to hear it.
The present tense of stare is io sto, tu stai, lui/lei sta, noi stiamo, voi state, loro stanno. It is irregular: 2 of its 6 present forms break the regular -are pattern. Its gerund is stando and its past participle is stato. Its compound tenses are formed with essere. Every present form and 4 example sentences have a listen button.
Forms in orange break the regular -are pattern.
| io | sto | |
|---|---|---|
| tu | stai (irregular) | |
| lui/ | sta | |
| noi | stiamo | |
| voi | state | |
| loro | stanno (irregular) |
| io | sono stato |
|---|---|
| tu | sei stato |
| lui/ | è stato |
| noi | siamo stati |
| voi | siete stati |
| loro | sono stati |
| io | stavo |
|---|---|
| tu | stavi |
| lui/ | stava |
| noi | stavamo |
| voi | stavate |
| loro | stavano |
| io | starò (irregular) |
|---|---|
| tu | starai (irregular) |
| lui/ | starà (irregular) |
| noi | staremo (irregular) |
| voi | starete (irregular) |
| loro | staranno (irregular) |
| io | starei (irregular) |
|---|---|
| tu | staresti (irregular) |
| lui/ | starebbe (irregular) |
| noi | staremmo (irregular) |
| voi | stareste (irregular) |
| loro | starebbero (irregular) |
| che io | stia (irregular) |
|---|---|
| che tu | stia (irregular) |
| che lui/ | stia (irregular) |
| che noi | stiamo |
| che voi | stiate |
| che loro | stiano (irregular) |
| tu | stai (irregular) |
|---|---|
| Lei | stia (irregular) |
| noi | stiamo |
| voi | state |
| loro | stiano (irregular) |
Stare is irregular. The future includes starò and starai, and the conditional includes starei and staresti. The present subjunctive includes stia and stiano, while the imperative includes stai and stia.
Lingo7 is an app for reading books in Italian with a translation under every sentence and audio, so the forms in these tables come back in context.
No, stare is irregular. The table marks stai and stanno as irregular present forms, while sto is not marked irregular.
The future forms are starò, starai, starà, staremo, starete, and staranno.
The gerund is stando and the past participle is stato. The auxiliary is essere, giving forms such as sono stato and siamo stati.