to wait / to hold on
Almost always the imperative Stai! or Stați!. This single use is most of the verb’s frequency in speech.
Stai puțin!
Hold on a second!
Stai să văd.
Wait, let me see.
#62 · Verb
sta
In Romanian, sta means “to wait / to hold on”. It’s the #62 most frequently used Romanian word. Below you’ll find how to use it, its forms, real example sentences, and common word pairings.
Meaning & Use
A sta covers staying, sitting, standing and living somewhere — one Romanian verb where English uses four. Rank 62, and its measured frequency is dominated by a single form, stai, because Stai! is the everyday word for "Wait!" and "Hold on!". Stau în București means "I live in Bucharest", which is the sense learners meet first and expect least.
neutralto live / to reside
The normal spoken way to say where you live. A locui is the formal alternative.
Stau în București.
I live in Bucharest.
Unde stai?
Where do you live?
to sit / to be seated
The state of sitting. Sitting down as an action is a se așeza.
Stai jos.
Have a seat.
Stăm la masă.
We are sitting at the table.
to stay / to remain
Of duration in a place.
Am stat două ore.
We stayed two hours.
Stai la noi?
Are you staying at our place?
to stand (in a position or state)
Also feeds many fixed phrases: a sta pe gânduri "to hesitate", a sta bine "to be doing well".
Cum stai cu banii?
How are you doing for money?
Nu sta pe gânduri.
Don't hesitate.
Forms you’ll actually hear
Ranked by how often each form shows up in spoken Romanian. The top 4 forms cover about 83% of everyday use — learn these first.
stai57%
stau11%
sta9%
stă6%
Show 8 more forms
stat5%
stăm4%
stea4%
stați3%
stătea1%
stând<1%
stam<1%
stăteau<1%
Conjugation
- Infinitive
- a sta
- Past Participle
- stat
- Gerund
- stând
- Imperative Singular
- stai
- Imperative Plural
- stați
- Auxiliary
- a avea
- Reflexive
- No
- Transitivity
- intransitive
| Tense | eu | tu | el/ea | noi | voi | ei/ele |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | stau | stai | stă | stăm | stați | stau |
| Imperfect | stăteam | stăteai | stătea | stăteam | stăteați | stăteau |
| Perfect compus | am stat | ai stat | a stat | am stat | ați stat | au stat |
| Future | voi sta | vei sta | va sta | vom sta | veți sta | vor sta |
| Conditional | aș sta | ai sta | ar sta | am sta | ați sta | ar sta |
| Subjunctive | să stau | să stai | să stea | să stăm | să stați | să stea |
- The imperfect is stăteam, not *stam — although the shortened stam does appear in relaxed speech and shows up in the measured forms.
- The subjunctive stea and the noun stea ("star") are written and pronounced the same; only the să in front separates them.
- For where you live, a sta is the spoken default and a locui the formal one: Stau în Cluj, but Locuiesc în Cluj on a form.
Examples
Stai puțin!
Hold on a moment!
stai - By far the most frequent form of this verb. The imperative singular is identical to the 2nd-singular present, so one form does two jobs.
Stau în centru.
I live in the centre.
stau - The "reside" sense. stau serves both eu and ei/ele, so an explicit pronoun is added only when it is genuinely unclear.
Unde stă sora ta?
Where does your sister live?
stă - The 3rd singular stă with its â-vowel change. The subject follows the question word, as usual in Romanian questions.
Am stat acasă toată ziua.
I stayed home all day.
stat - Compound past with a avea. acasă needs no preposition — it already means "at home".
Vrei să stai cu noi?
Do you want to stay with us?
să stai - For tu the subjunctive matches the present. After cu use the stressed pronoun noi.
Trebuie să stea în pat.
He has to stay in bed.
să stea - The 3rd-person subjunctive stea is irregular, and is spelled exactly like the noun stea, "star".
Stai! in ordinary speech means "Wait!", not "Stand up!". To tell someone to sit you say Stai jos, which literally reads "stay down" — the jos is what makes it a seat, and leaving it out changes the message completely.
In expressions
Common phrases built around sta — worth learning as whole units.
a-i sta bine— to suit (someone), to look good on
lit. “to stand well to” · îți stă bine = it suits you / you look good in it