The most common way to ask someone if he or she is tired in Italian is by using the phrase Sei stanco? for a man or Sei stanca? for a woman.
Sei stanco? / Sei stanca?
Are you tired?
The respective plurals are Siete stanchi? (for men or mixed groups) and Siete stanche? (for women).
As you’ve probably surmised, sei is the second-person singular conjugation (present tense) of the verb essere meaning ‘to be‘, whereas siete is the second-person plural. Both translate as “you are” in English. Keep in mind that there is no need to include the subject pronoun tu/voi (you/all of you), as the subject is evident from the conjugation.
Because stanco is an adjective that ends in -o, the ending tells you whether the subject is masculine, feminine, singular or plural.
- stanco = masculine singular
- stanca = feminine singular
- stanchi = masculine plural
- stanche = feminine plural
There are a number of possible responses to this phrase, including:
- Sì, sono stanco / stanca. = Yes, I’m tired.
- No, non sono stanco / stanca. = No, I’m not tired.
- Sì, sono stanchissimo / stanchissima. = Yes, I’m really tired.
- Sì, sono stanco morto / stanca morta. = Yes, I’m dead tired.
- Sì, sono esausto / esausta. = Yes, I’m exhausted.
- Sì, sono distrutto / distrutta. = Yes, I’m exhausted. (lit. destroyed)
- Sì, sono stremato / stremata. = Yes, I’m exhausted.
- Sì, sono sfinito / sfinita. = Yes, I’m exhausted.
Sei stanco? – Sì, sono stanco morto. Ho appena finito una maratona lunga 50 chilometri!
Are you tired? – Yes, I’m dead tired. I just finished a 50k marathon.
Heather Broster is a graduate with honours in linguistics from the University of Western Ontario. She is an aspiring polyglot, proficient in English and Italian, as well as Japanese, Welsh, and French to varying degrees of fluency. Originally from Toronto, Heather has resided in various countries, notably Italy for a period of six years. Her primary focus lies in the fields of language acquisition, education, and bilingual instruction.