How Italians Commonly Answer To Come Stai/va? In Informal Conversation (sub)

Tutorial Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome back to my channel! How are you all? I hope that you are all well and that you are ready for a new lesson on the Italian language! Today we see what are the responses more common that the Italians give to the question "Come stai? [how are you]?" or "Come va? [how's it going]?". You all know that they have the same meaning: "Come stai?" is a neutral question, "Come va" is a little more informal, but not too much. Alright, before starting I want to underline the fact that there is not a response more right than the other, okay? So I didn't make this video to tell you all "Dovete dire questo [you all must say this]", no! You don't have to say absolutely anything. You all choose which response seems more suitable according to your mood, according to the context, according to the person to which you are responding, it goes well? These are only the more common responses, those that you can most easily hear in a normal conversation. Obviously we have the classic response "bene/male [well/unwell]", that if responds to "Come stai?" will be "Sto bene/male [I am well/unwell]". If instead responding to the question "Come va?" it will be "Va bene/male [it goes well/bad]". Because we must assume the verb of the question. So: - How are you? I am well! - How's it going? It goes badly. So "sto/va benone! [I am/it goes fine]!". Have you all ever heard this resonse? - How are you/does it go? - (I am/it goes) fine! Means "molto bene [very well]". Then, another way to say that it goes very well, that you are very well is "alla grande [awesome]". - How are you/does it go? - (I am/it goes) awesome! Another response that I often use is "bene, dai!". This "dai" does not have a specific meaning, but serves only to mitigate the absolute meaning of "well". Then "tutto bene [all is well]". - How's it going? - (it goes) all well! Another very common response is "tutto a posto [all is in place]", che means "tutto in ordine [all is in order]", thus everything is going well. "Tutto a posto" is a very informal and very colloquial option in respect to, per example, to "tutto bene". The meaning is the same, but changes a little the context of the use. Then we have "non c'è male! [there is nothing bad]!". - How are you/it is going? - There is nothing bad! If one doesn't want to respond "bene", one can say "non c'è male"! Then we can also respond "come al solito [as per usual]". - How are you/is it going? - (I am/it goes) as per usual! Another response that however goes towards a more negative response is "Mah, così [mah, it is/such is/as is/whatever]". Or we can also say: - How are you/is it going? - (I am/it goes) as such/whatever. This is the response that approaches more towards "male". It would be a bit strange to respond "male" to "Come stai/va?", because if one responds "male" he/she must then explain largely what is going on. So people tend to always give some more vague responses, instead of responding "male", because otherwise worry. When a person responds to you "sto male", he/she will probably then add "ho la febbre [I have a fever]", "ho il mal di gola [I have a sore throat]", "ho la tonsillite [I have tonsillitis]", "mi fanno male i denti [my teeth hurt/I have a toothache], etc. As always, when we about language, everything depends on the communicative situation in which we find ourselves. So your response to "come stai?" or "come va?" depends a lot on the person that you have in front of you. If in front of you you have your best friend, it is normal to respond "male" and then explain what's going/happening. Okay? So what I said before refers to one classic communicative exchange, in which the person doesn't want to expressively say everything that is happening in their life. Then, another way to respond, that is contemporary enough, almost avant-garde linguistically - that I also use at times actually, is to respond like this: - How are you? - I am. Maybe you don't want to expose/exhibit yourself, you don't want to say that you are well, you don't want to say that you are unwell, you say "sto [I am]". Thus if you respond like this the person will understand that you are more towards unwell than towards well, let's say sort of an apathetic situation. Same thing with - How's it going? - It goes. I told you all it, this is avant-garde linguistics! Alright, these are some responses really very very common, that surely you will have already heard. If you all also decide to use some of these responses, it will go just fine! Because, precisely, these are some responses more natural that people really use in their conversations, in the everyday language. Alright, let me know in the comments if you all already knew these responses or if some of these are new! So let me know what you all have learned in today's video. I thank you all and we'll see each other in the next video. See you soon, bye!