How Are You?

Come Stai?

Introduction

Introduzione

Italian has both a formal and informal way of addressing people. This makes asking the simple question "How are you?" slightly more complicated than in English. You need to know which "you" to use:

tu the informal, which takes the second-person singular verb tense, or

lei the formal, with a uppercase L, which with a lowercase is the third-person feminine pronoun, equivalent to "she".

Tu is used among close friends, family, and people younger than you. Lei is used for strangers - or even acquaintances - and people older than you.

It is very important to use which level of formality to use. It can be very insulting to someone to address them incorrectly.

To learn more about tu, Lei and similar words, check out the subject pronouns lesson.

Vocabulary

Vocabolario

Play tu
you informal nominative personal
Play bene
fine well
Play come
how interrogative such as interrogative as interrogative like interrogative
Play male
bad
Play tutto
everything all
Play molto
much very
Play Lei
you formal nominative personal you formal disjunctive personal
Play stare
to be temporal to stay

Phrases

Proposizioni

Play Come sta?
How are you? formal
Play Come stai?
How are you? informal
Play Che si dice?
What's up?
Play Come va?
How's it going?
Play Tutto bene?
Everything okay?
Play Sto bene.
I'm fine.
Play Non sto molto bene.
I'm not very well.
Play E tu?
And you? informal
Play E Lei?
And you? formal
Play Molto bene.
Very good.
Play Male.
Bad
Play Benvenuto.
Welcome

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Comments

Commenti

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