"pitiful state" is correct and usable in written English, typically to describe a sad or unfortunate situation.
Example: The refugees found themselves in a pitiful state, facing neglect and hardship.
"We found the country in a pitiful state".
Wolves were in a pitiful state in 1986.
"Our emergency services are in a pitiful state," he told the newspaper.
Looking at the pitiful state of Labour and its leader, that should make sense.
Peace is holding in troubled north of the country, but the economy there remains in a pitiful state.
All but ten or so are technically insolvent.Their pitiful state is the prime reason why China's capital markets remain underdeveloped.
Why show people in these pitiful states?
"The further he went the more clogged the road became, and the more pitiful the state of the fleeing population.
A six-page monthly financial statement for Deir ez-Zor province for January 2015 shows total monthly revenue was $8.4m£5.6m6m) – handsome for a terrorist group, but pitiful for a state.
They are living on a pitiful proportion of the state pension that, by rights, they are entitled to.
But donors who are regularly squeezed to compensate for the state's pitiful cultural funding failed to come up with enough ducats this time around.
