Stare Per: “To be about to” in Italian

    Use “stare per”when speaking in Italianto let someone know you are “about to”do something!

In this blog, “Stare per: ‘To be about to’ in Italian “we will focus on how to conjugate and use the Italian verb and preposition combination stare per.This verb combination is the way Italians let others know they are “about to” do something.

The heart of any language is its verbs.  I believe that to speak fluently in any language, it is important to have an in-depth understanding of how each verb is used in real life situations. And what can be more important than telling the one you love how special they are to you?

Enjoy the third topic in my blog series about Italian verbs: Stare per: “To be about to” in Italian.   —Kathryn Occhipinti

Special thanks to Italian instructor Maria Vanessa Colapinto.

Parts of this blog have been reposted from Italian Phrases We Use EVERY Day! – “To be about to” with Stare per’ from Conversational Italian! a blog by the same author.  Check out this blog as well if you are interested in phrases to use every day!

---

Stare per — “to be about to” in Italian

As we’ve seen in a previous blog about the verb  stare,  although the direct translation of  stare is  “to stay,” over the centuries  stare has also taken on the meaning of  “to be” with respect to one’s general health. The verb  stare is often used in other ways as well. For instance, with the addition of the preposition  per, the  “stare per” combination conveys the meaning  “to be about to.”

Stare is an  –are verb that has an irregular root in the  tu and  loro forms. In the table below, the regular conjugations of  stare are given in green and the irregular forms in brown, in order to make them easier to recognize. The  stare conjugation table has been modified from  our first blog on this topic  to reflect the different meaning with the addition of the preposition  per after the verb.

Stare per –  to be about to 

io	sto per	I am about to
tu	stai per	you (familiar)  are about to
Lei lei/lui	sta per	you (polite)  are about to she/he is about to
noi	sti am o per	we are about to
voi	sta te per	you all are about to
loro	stan no per	they are about to

Once we have  stare conjugated to reflect the speaker, the rest is easy! Simply follow the conjugated form of  stare with  per and then the infinitive form of the verb that describes what you are “about to” do.

What are some things we may be “about to” do during the course of the day?  The actions of  going to  or  returning from  a place are very common.  For instance, if I were “about to” go to the store to pick up some wine for dinner, and want to inform a family member, the line may go something like this:

Sto per andare a comprare una bottiglia di vino. Preferisci rosso o bianco? I am about to go to buy a bottle of wine. Do you prefer red or white?

Or, maybe your friend is putting on his coat, as if he were about to leave a gathering. Instead, you would like him to stay. You may say something like this (using the familiar command form of  restare):

Stai per partire? È troppo presto! Resta qui un ora di più con me! Are you about to leave?  It’s very early! Stay here an hour longer with me!

We can continue in this manner with the other verbs of “coming and going”  like  arrivare (to arrive), venire (to come), entrare (to enter), tornare (to return), or rientrare (to come back).

There are many other daily activities that come to mind where  stare per may be useful.  We are often “about to”  say (dire) something important, or “about to”  answer (rispondere) a question. We may be “about to”   write (scrivere), send (mandare), or  read (leggere) an important text or email.

After hearing sad news, we may be  about to cry (stare per mettersi a piangere).

Several commonly used verb combinations given above have been listed in the table below. How many more can you think of?

Stare per andare	About to go
Stare per partire	About to leave
Stare per arrivare	About to arrive
Stare per venire	About to come
Stare per entrare	About to enter
Stare per tornare	About to return
Stare per rientrare	About to come back
Stare per dire	About to say
Stare per rispondere	About to answer
Stare per scivere	About to write
Stare per mandare	About to send
Stare per leggere	About to read
Stare per mettersi a piangere	About to cry

*******************************

Now that we know how to say what we are about to do in the present tense, let’s go one a step further and talk about the past tense. In fact, many of the phrases listed in the last section are more commonly used in the past tense during a normal conversation.

For instance, the phrase, “I was about to say…” is often used when one speaker has interrupted another. “I was about to answer…!” might be used if one feels pressured into saying something too quickly. Or, is one is telling a story about an unfortunate event that has happened to a friend, this story might involve the sentence, “He/she was about to cry…”

In these cases, we have to conjugate  stare in the past tense.  The  imperfetto conjugation is given below. The rest of the sentence structure remains the same!

Stare imperfetto per —  was about to

io	stavo per	I  was about to
tu	stavi per	you (familiar)  were about to
Lei lei/lui	stava per	you (polite)  were about to she/he was about to
noi	stavamo per	we were about to
voi	stavate per	you all were about to
loro	stavano per	they were about to

Stavo per dire la stessa cosa!
I was about to say the same thing!

Stavo per rispondere, ma non mi hai dato il tempo!
I was about to answer, but you didn’t give me time!

Stava per mettersi a piangere quando le ho detto che nonna è in ospitale.
She was about to cry when I told her that grandma is in the hospital.

*******************************

Another important use for the verb  stare is to convey the idea that one is doing something  right now.   Stare plus the gerund of an action verb creates the present progressive form. In English, the present progressive is the “ing” form of a verb  —  I am going, coming, doing, etc.

In Italian, the present progressive tense is used sparingly; it is reserved for a happening that is going on  at the exact same time  as the conversation. In short, where in English we commonly say “I am going,” to mean we will leave anywhere from one minute later to sometime in the near future,  in Italian, a simple,  “Io vado,” will suffice. To stress that he or she is leaving momentarily, an Italian might instead use  stare say,  “Sto andando,”** but either tense is correct.

To form the present progressive tense, simply conjugate  stare to reflect the speaker. Then add the gerund of the action verb that is to follow.

It is fairly simple to create a gerund to create the present progressive tense in Italian. Drop the  -are, -ere, and  -ire verb endings to create the stem. Then add – ando to the stem of the  -are verbs and  -endo to the stem of the  -ere and  -ire verbs. Most gerunds are regular, which generally makes for easy conjugation, although, of course, there are some exceptions! For more information on this verb type, check out our reference book,  Conversational Italian for Travelers “Just the Verbs.”  

Let’s take  a few of our example sentences one step further, from being “about to” do something, to actually doing it “right away.” Notice how the different use of  stare changes the meaning of each sentence!

Sto andando a comprare una bottiglia di vino.  I am going (right now) to buy a bottle of wine. 

Il treno per Roma sta partendo!
The train for Rome is leaving (right now)!

Stavo dicendo la stessa cosa!
I was (just) saying the same thing!

Stavo rispondendo, ma mi hai interrotto!
I was answering, but you interrupted me!

A couple more points…

*Another common way to convey you are leaving right away is with the phrase,  “Me ne vado,” from the verb  andarsene, but this is a topic for another blog!

*Instead of saying,  “Sto arrivando,” for “I’m coming right now,” Italians commonly say,  “Arrivo!”

Stare per – “To be about to” in Italian