stava

stava

"Stava" means "was" or "was staying," used as the third person singular imperfect tense of "stare."

In this sentence, 'stava' is used as an auxiliary verb in the past continuous tense, indicating an action 'reading a book' that was ongoing when another action 'the phone rang' occurred.

Maria stava leggendo un libro quando il telefono ha squillato.

Maria was reading a book when the phone rang.

Here, 'stava' introduces an ongoing action 'was saying' in the past to set up a background for the difficulty in understanding.

Non capivo cosa stava dicendo durante la riunione.

I couldn't understand what she was saying during the meeting.

In this context, 'stava' is used in the construction 'stava per', expressing an imminent action 'was about to go out' that was interrupted by another event.

Luca stava per uscire quando si è ricordato di dover fare una telefonata.

Luca was about to go out when he remembered he had to make a phone call.