Rocket Italian 6 Day Course! -
Greetings (text lesson)

Formal & Informal Modes of Address

The conversation from last time went like this:

» Italian Conversation

When you are greeting someone you already know, ciao ("hi") is a perfectly acceptable greeting. However, often you'll need to be more formal than that. If you are meeting someone you don't know, use the more formal version of "Good morning," or, "Good evening."   

It is even more polite to add a formal title afterwards, like

(Formerly signorina was used for all unmarried women, but today it is used for young girls from roughly 13 to 30 years-old.)

Greeting More than One Person

When you have to greet more than one person at a time, don't think that you'll get away with a big buon giorno to the whole group. In some situations, you will be expected to greet everyone individually. That means a lot of shaking hands and a lot of buon giorno's!

How are You?

It's only polite to ask how people are doing. In Italian, the most common way that this is done is by saying,

The word come means how. The word stai comes from the verb "to stay," but here serves the purpose of saying: are you (or you are). We'll get to why we use this particular verb here in a moment.

You might also wonder how one word in Italian can mean the equivalent of two words in English. Let me tell you now: this will happen all the time! Sometimes one word in English will require two words or more in Italian, or vice versa. That's why it's important not to get caught up in making literal, or word-by-word, translations.

Italian allows you to include the subject of a sentence inside the verb by modifying the verb slightly. This is called conjugation. "Conjugation" is simply a fancy way to say how verbs can change according to the subject they are referring to.  

Addressing YOU

One of the other strange things about Italian is that you have a choice about whether you are going to address another person respectfully or familiarly (e.g., informally). There are actually four words for "you" in Italian!

Right now, the important thing to realize is that the question, "How are you?" can change according to which "you" you wish to use. If you're asking a single person how he or she is, you'll choose between one of the following.

The first question is the one used in the conversation above between me and my friend Alex. Since we're friends, we use the informal mode of address.

If, however, I was addressing someone I'd never met before or someone older than me, I would have said,

It means exactly the same thing, except that this way it imparts much greater respectfulness and politeness.

Let's look at the picture below. Can you tell what they're saying?

The boy would likely be saying: Buon giorno, come sta:

Note that the older man will first reply by saying, Ciao, bene (in Italian, people always reply to this question - unlike in English where you can get away with replying to "How are you doing" with "How are you doing").

Then he would say come stai in return. He can use the informal form because he is much older and higher in the social ladder.

Really, HOW are You?

If someone asks you, Come stai? you have a variety of responses you can use. Here are some of the most common.

Note that we use the verb stare (for "to stay") when we talk about how we are, and the verb essere ('to be") when we say: "I am tired" or "I am bored."

This is because in Italian, we can use stare in several ways that are make it more flexible than the verb "to stay" English. For example:

***

Well... that's probably more than enough technical stuff for one day. I have to mention that you've been a most excellent student for sticking through the tricky bits. Next time we'll be back on the conversational side of things!

In tomorrow's lesson you'll find out all about how to introduce yourself in Italian, ask someone's name, and tell them your own. Don't miss this one - we all know how important first impressions are!

A presto (Until then),

Maria DiLorenzi
Rocket Italian

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