Presente: Rimanere (to stay/remain)

Rimanere ("to stay, to remain") is the third major member of the -nG- irregular family alongside tenere and venire. Unlike them, it has no vowel shift — the a of the stem stays a throughout. But it does have an irregular participio passato (rimasto) and a remarkably wide emotional range, used in everyday Italian to express being surprised, struck, disappointed, or hurt by something. Mastering rimanere unlocks a whole register of natural Italian reactions.

The conjugation

Rimanere belongs to the -nG- family: a -g- is inserted in the io and loro forms. There is no stem-vowel shift — the a of riman- remains a in every form. This makes rimanere arguably the simplest member of the family.

Three points to internalize:

1. The -g- is inserted only in 1sg (rimango) and 3pl (rimangono). All other forms keep the bare stem riman-.

2. There is no vowel shift. Where venire has vengo / vieni / viene (with e→ie), rimanere has rimango / rimani / rimane — the a never changes.

3. The loro form rimangono stresses the root: rimàngono, never rimangòno. Like every Italian 3pl, it is rizotonic — five syllables with stress on the second.

Auxiliary in compound tenses: essere

Rimanere is a verb of state and takes essere in compound tenses, with full agreement of the past participle. The participio passato is irregular: rimasto.

The participle rimasto has no obvious connection to the infinitive rimanere — it goes back to the Latin perfective stem remansi (1sg perfect of remanēre). Once you know it, it is unmistakable.

The core meaning: staying in place, time, or state

Rimanere covers what English splits between stay and remain — both physical "staying somewhere" and the more abstract "remaining in a state." A single verb does both.

The fourth pattern — rimangono X with X as the subject — is a particularly useful one. It is the Italian way of saying "X is left" or "there is/are X remaining," and it is structurally subjectless (the thing that remains is the subject; the person who has it left is in the dative or implied).

Rimanere male — the emotional core

Here is rimanere's most distinctively Italian use, with no clean English equivalent. Rimanere male literally means "to remain badly," but idiomatically it means "to feel hurt, to be upset, to be disappointed, to be taken aback." It is the standard Italian way to express the emotional sting of a small interpersonal injury — being snubbed, getting bad news, hearing something hurtful.

The construction lives in everyday speech and has a very specific emotional shape — somewhere between "to be hurt" and "to be disappointed," but lighter than either, and almost always interpersonal. The English equivalent depends on context: "feel bad," "be upset," "take something the wrong way," "be put out."

The full emotional range: rimanere + adjective

Beyond male, rimanere combines with a wide range of adjectives to describe the experience of becoming or finding oneself in an emotional state — usually triggered by an external event. The structure is rimanere + adjective with full agreement of the adjective with the subject.

What unites these expressions is the perfective semantics: rimanere here is not "remaining indefinitely" but "ending up in a state as a result of an event." The English closest equivalent would be be left + adjective — "I was left speechless," "I was left disappointed" — but Italian uses the construction far more freely than English does.

Common idiomatic uses

A few more high-frequency expressions that round out rimanere's everyday range.

The expression rimanere incinta is interesting: it shows rimanere used not for a continuing state but for the moment of entering a state — the change from "not pregnant" to "pregnant." This is a perfective sense of the verb, used widely with biological and social transitions: rimanere vedovo/a (to be widowed), rimanere orfano/a (to be orphaned), rimanere senza lavoro (to be left without work).

Rimanere vs restare

Italian has two words for "to stay/remain" that overlap heavily: rimanere and restare. For most purposes they are interchangeable, and a learner can use either without sounding wrong. But there are subtle preferences.

For learners: use either. They mean the same thing, and Italians use both. Rimanere is slightly more frequent overall and slightly more emotionally rich (especially in rimanere male), but you cannot go wrong with either.

The imperative

The tu imperative of rimanere is rimani (the same as the indicative tu form). The Lei form is rimanga (from the congiuntivo). The noi form is rimaniamo.

The negative tu imperative uses non + infinitive: non rimanere troppo male ("don't be too upset").

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

Rimanere conjugates as rimango, rimani, rimane, rimaniamo, rimanete, rimangono — the -g- appears in 1sg and 3pl, the stem vowel a never changes, and stress is on the root in rimàngono. The participio passato is the irregular rimasto, and the auxiliary in compound tenses is essere.

Rimanere covers both stay (physical) and remain (in a state) — one verb where English has two. With quantity expressions (mi rimangono dieci euro), it is the natural way to say "X has Y left."

The construction rimanere + adjective is one of Italian's most expressive emotional resources — rimanere male, sorpreso, colpito, deluso, stupito, senza parole. Each is an everyday reaction. Memorize rimanere male as the basic expression of being hurt or upset, and the rest will pattern from there.

Rimanere and restare are largely interchangeable, with rimanere slightly more frequent and slightly more emotionally rich. Use either; recognize both.

Once rimanere is solid, contrast it with stare for "being in a state right now," and review the rest of the -nG- family. For the irregular participle pattern, the auxiliary overview lays out which verbs take essere and how their participles agree.