Asking how someone is

Absolute Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 3. Of course you're doing well if you're in Italy. In today's class, we will focus on asking about how someone is. This conversation takes place at the bar. The conversation is between Ilaria Ravazzi and Alessio Martini. In the first conversation, they will be speaking in formal Italian. In the second conversation, they'll use formal Italian. Let's listen to the conversation. Informal. Ilaria, come stai? Benone, e tu? Non c'è male, grazie. Formal. Buonasera signora Ravazzi, come sta? Molto bene, grazie. E lei? Io sto così così. And now, with a translation. Questa volta, con la traduzione. Ciao Ilaria, come stai? Hi Ilaria, how are you? Benone, e tu? Terrific! And you? Non c'è male, grazie. Not too bad, thank you. Buonasera signora Ravazzi, come sta? Good evening, Mrs. Ravazzi, how do you do? Molto bene, grazie. E lei? Very well, thank you. And you? Io sto così così. I'm not so well. The first word we shall see is... Come. How. Come. And the next word is... Very well, terrific. And next we have... Thank you, thanks. And the next word is... Buonasera. Good evening. Bu-o-na-se-ra. Buonasera. And today's last word is... Signora. Madam, lady, Mrs. Si-gno-ra. Signora. The focus of this lesson is on asking how people are doing. Come stai? means How are you? referring to the second person singular you, tu. We use come sta in formal expressions such as How are you, sir? This term has two alternative meanings. To explain this better, let us look at our first Italian verb conjugation in present indicative form. But before we jump in, let's tell our listeners that the meaning of the verb stare depends on the context in which it is used. Please note that the direct equivalent of to be is essere. And now, let's see the conjugation of the verb stare. Io sto. I am. Tu stai. You are. Lui, lei. Sta. He, she, it, is. Noi stiamo. We are. Voi state. You are. Loro stanno. They are. As you can clearly see, the informal way to ask, how are you, uses the second person singular tu. So, when we want to speak formally, we just have to switch to the next person, lui, lei, creating a distance between the speakers. So, come sta means how are you in formal speech. And how is he, she, in informal speech. The same happens for tu and lei. Lei means either her in informal speech or you, either masculine and feminine, in formal speech. Its meaning is determined by the context it is used in. Lui can only mean him.