English / Italiano

Pronouns

Italian has more pronoun sets than English, but many of the forms repeat. The chart shows where one word does several jobs and where the forms split. The diagrams below it show where a pronoun goes in the sentence.

Every set in one chart

	Subject	Direct object	Indirect object	Reflexive	After a preposition
I / me	io	mi			me
you	tu	ti			te
he / him	lui	lo	gli	si	lui
she / her	lei	la	le	si	lei
you (formal)	Lei	La	Le	si	Lei
we / us	noi	ci			noi
you all	voi	vi			voi
they / them	loro	li masc. le fem.	gli	si	loro

filled, wide cell: one form covers direct, indirect and reflexivedashed cell: the form changes with the job

In the first and second person, the same form is used as direct object, indirect object and reflexive pronoun: mi vede (he sees me), mi parla (he talks to me), mi lavo (I wash myself).
The third person has three different sets: lo, la, li, le for a direct object, gli, le for an indirect object, si for a reflexive.
Le appears twice. It means “to her” as an indirect object and “them” (feminine) as a direct object.
Formal Lei uses the feminine third person forms, whether you are speaking to a man or a woman.
After a preposition, use the last column: con me, per te, a lui.
For “to them”, everyday Italian uses gli. Formal writing puts loro after the verb instead.
The subject column is usually left unspoken, because the verb ending already identifies the subject.

Two pronouns together

When an indirect pronoun is used together with a direct one, the indirect pronoun comes first and changes its vowel. Read across from the person, down from the thing.

	+ lo	+ la	+ li	+ le	+ ne
mi	me lo	me la	me li	me le	me ne
ti	te lo	te la	te li	te le	te ne
gli / le	glielo	gliela	glieli	gliele	gliene
ci	ce lo	ce la	ce li	ce le	ce ne
vi	ve lo	ve la	ve li	ve le	ve ne
si	se lo	se la	se li	se le	se ne

Mi, ti, ci, vi, si become me, te, ce, ve, se and stay a separate word: Me lo dai? (Will you give it to me?)
Gli and le both become glie- and combine with what follows, so glielo can mean “it to him”, “it to her” or “it to them”.

Where the pronoun goes

The unstressed pronouns come before a conjugated verb and attach to the end of an infinitive or a command. Each case is diagrammed against its English counterpart.