Take care in Italian

How exactly do you say take care in Italian?

In this lesson, we will take a look at the different ways you can translate this sentence into Italian. Read on to learn them all!

Stammi bene!
Take care!

Let’s start! Iniziamo!


How do you say take care in Italian?

Stammi bene

Stammi bene is how you commonly translate take care into Italian. You use this while saying goodbye to friends and family members.

Stammi bene!
Take care!

woman kissing friend on her cheek

This common sentence in Italian is made of two elements.

Stammi
“Stay to me”

Bene
Good

Stammi bene, ci vedremo al tuo ritorno.
Take care, I will see you when you return.

Stammi is the contracted form of stai, an imperative conjugation of stare (to stay) and the indirect object pronoun mi, as in “stay to me”.

Stai + mi = Stammi

Stare is a verb that belongs to the first -are group and it’s very common. Its indicativo presente conjugation is as follows.

Present tense conjugation for stare

iosto
tustai
lui, leista
noistiamo
voistate
lorostanno

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Non c’era nessun posto a sedere libero. Sono stato in piedi per ore.
There was no free seat. I stood for hours.

Dove stai andando? – Al supermercato a comprare del latte.
Where are you going? – To the supermarket to buy some milk.

woman stopping a man on his tracks to sell something

Abbi cura di te

Abbi cura di te is another way you can say take care in Italian. It’s once again appropriate to use with friends and people you are on familiar terms with.

Abbi cura di te
Take care

Literally, we could translate it as “have care of you”.

Stammi bene and abbi cura di te are completely interchangeable and are used to address one person at a time.

couple, man and a woman holding each other

Prenditi cura di te

Prenditi cura di te is the closest translation of take care in Italian, because the verb to take care is rendered here as prendersi cura, “to take oneself care”.

Prenditi cura di te
Take care

It’s suitable to use for friends and family and it literally means “take yourself care of yourself”, but I would say it’s slightly less common than the other two forms because it feels somewhat old, almost like what a true gentleman might say.


Riguardati

Riguardati comes from the verb riguardarsi, which is linked to the noun riguardo meaning respect or consideration. It literally means “look at yourself again”.

(Yes, I know, Italian can get weird.)

Riguardati
Take care

All these four sentences, however, are informal ways to say take care in Italian. Let’s see what the formal variants are in the next paragraph!

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Formality – Si riguardi

If you are just visiting Italy and often meet new people, unless you both agree on using the informal pronoun tu you will have to stick to the formal pronoun Lei when talking to other adults and people you are not on familiar terms with. With kids, it’s customary to use tu, no matter the degree of familiarity.

So, how do you formally say take care?

Si riguardi
Take care (formal)

Abbia cura di lei
Take care (formal)

Si prenda cura di lei
Take care (formal)

man bowing to older woman - how do you say to take care in italian

Personally, I only ever heard the first one being used, and never happened to stumble upon abbia cura di lei or si prenda cura di lei.

So, if you want to sound formal and wish someone to take care of themselves, stick to si riguardi.

Now, what if in front of you is a group of people? How do you say take care in Italian to more than one person?


Groups – Statemi bene

Italian has two kinds of “you”, unlike English. There’s a singular “you” and then there’s a plural “you”. If you are addressing a group, you will need to conjugate the main verbs according to the latter pronoun, which is voi.

The plural form of stammi bene is statemi bene.

Statemi bene
Take care (plural)

The other translations for saying take care in Italian would be:

Riguardatevi
Take care (plural)

Abbiate cura di voi
Take care (plural)

Prendetevi cura di voi
Take care (plural)

But I actually have never heard these ones in a conversation, or even read them in a book. So, if you’re saying goodbye to a group of people, use statemi bene and you will impress them all!

And that’s it, now you know how to say take care in Italian in all its forms!


What next?

Now that you’ve seen how to say take care in Italian, you might want to keep learning Italian online with these free Italian resources:

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