Basic expressions: Greeting someone and apologizing for being late

🇮🇹 [ciao] is friendly and informal. Use it with friends, family, classmates, or people your age in relaxed settings, but not as the safest default with strangers.

💬 [stai] is the [tu] form of [stare], used in everyday check-ins like [Come stai?]. Swap the person and it changes: [Come sta?] for one person formally, [Come state?] for more than one.

🇮🇹 [Come stai?] is informal, for people you know or when the setting is relaxed. With strangers or in more polite situations, many Italians would choose [Come sta?].

💬 [sto] comes from [stare], which Italian often uses for how someone is feeling, not just where they are. So [Sto bene] is the natural reply to [Come stai?], not a literal [Sono bene].

💬 Italian often leaves out the subject when the verb already shows who it is, so [Sto bene] naturally means "I'm fine" without saying [io]. You can do the same in many short replies: [Sono stanco], [Vado subito].

🇮🇹 [grazie] is the normal all-purpose "thanks," from casual to polite. In Italy people use it a lot in small everyday exchanges, not only for big favors.