I pronomi personali soggetto in italiano (Subject Pronouns in Italian)
- io – (I) – note that io does not need to start with a capital letter as in English.
- tu – (you – singular – informal)
- Lei – (you – singular – formal)
- lui – (he)
- lei – (she)
- noi – (we)
- voi – (you – plural – informal)
- Loro – (you – plural – formal)
- loro – (they)
Italian pronouns with verbs
You will be happy to know that you don’t need to say (or write) the Italian subject pronoun before the verb in a sentence as the conjugation of that verb (the way the verb changes according to the subject) lets us know who is doing that action (verb).
For example: In English you either have an S or nothing to the end of a verb in the present tense. If you say speak without the subject pronoun in English, you will probably be wondering… WHO spoke? I speak? We speak? They speak? Speak can be used with I, you, we, or they so the subject pronoun is necessary to avoid confusion and to know exactly who is doing the verb. You need to say I speak or WE speak.
HOWEVER in Italian the subject pronoun is NOT necessary.
For example you normally say: parlo (= I speak) instead of io parlo (the io part is redundant)
You can say parlo (instead of io parlo) because the ending of the verb (it ends in -o) lets us know the verb refers to io (which is I) and no other subject. The subject pronoun io is considered redundant.
We will see more about verb endings in another lesson.
Lei and Loro
There are two subject pronouns that can differ in meaning.
- Lei – (you – singular – formal) vs. lei – (she)
- Loro – (you – plural – formal) vs. loro – (they)
Lei and Loro begin with a capital letter in written Italian to differentiate them from lei (she) and loro (they).
Lei and Loro are both formal ways of saying you (Lei is singular and Loro is plural). They are used when talking to someone you have just met and in the situations that appear below (tu vs. Lei).
Tu vs. Lei
Tu is informal. Tu means you (singular) when you are referring to a friend, a member of the family, a child or another person you are close to. Also it is common with people of the same age.
Lei is formal (or polite). Lei means you (singular) when you are referring to an elderly person or someone in a position that requires respect (your boss, a client, a police officer etc.).
So lei can mean she (when written with a lowercase L) or you (singular – when written with a capital L).
Voi vs. Loro
As with Tu vs Lei, the same applies to the plural forms of you, voi and Loro regarding informal and formal.
Voi is informal. Voi means you (plural) when you are referring to friends, family members, children and other people you are close to. You can think of Voi as “you all” or “you guys” in a relaxed, informal way.
Loro is formal (or polite). Loro means you (plural) when you are referring to elderly people or people in a position that requires respect (your bosses, clients, police officers etc.).
Formal written subject pronouns
You may encounter the following subject pronouns in some formal written language.
- egli, esso – (he)
- ella, essa – (she)
- essi – (they – masculine)
- esse – (they – feminine)
In modern Italian these subject pronouns are hardly ever used. They are limited to formal writing and you will almost never hear them in spoken Italian. I have included these here in case you stumble across them in a text somewhere.
We will pretty much ignore these formal subject pronouns throughout this Italian course as it is not something you are likely to use. 🙂
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