Learn Italian: Il bambino non sta fermo. - The child does not stay still.

Il bambino non sta fermo.

The child does not stay still.

Breakdown of Il bambino non sta fermo.

to stay, to feel, to be

fermo

still, motionless

Questions & Answers about Il bambino non sta fermo.

Why do we use sta here instead of è?

Sta comes from the irregular verb stare, which means to stay or to remain. While essere is the usual verb for to be, stare is used in specific phrases like stare fermo to mean to stay still or to keep still.

What is the dictionary form of sta, and why is it conjugated this way here?

The base verb is stare. We use the form sta (he/she/it stays) because the subject is il bambino, which is a third-person singular noun (he).

If we were talking about a girl, would fermo change?

Yes. Fermo acts as an adjective describing the child, so its ending must match the child's gender. If the subject were feminine (la bambina), the ending would change to a feminine a, making the sentence La bambina non sta ferma.

Why does non come before the verb?

In Italian, the negative word non always goes immediately before the verb it is negating. Unlike English, which uses helper phrases like does not, Italian simply puts non right before sta.