Italian - Articles

Pronomi

I hope you recall the introduction to Italian personal pronouns on the Verbs page. If not you might want to take a look there first. Here are the basic Italian pronouns;

  • io - I
  • tu - you(only singular informal)
  • lui/lei - he/she (both also used for "it", and "she" is also used for formal "you" often with a capital Lei.)
  • noi - we
  • voi - you (plural both informal and formal)
  • loro - they

Possesive pronouns

How do you indicate ownership? How do you say mine and yours etc. in Italian;

  • mi{o,a,ei,e} - my
  • tu{o,a,oi,e} - your (only singular informal)
  • su{o,a,oi,e} - his/her (both also used for "its", and "her" is also used for formal "your" often with a capital Su{o,a,oi,e}.)
  • nostr{o,a,i,e} - our
  • vostr{o,a,i,e} -your (plural both informal and formal)
  • loro - their

Notice the alternative endings for ,

  {masculine-singular, feminine-singular, masculine-plural, feminine-plural}.

we use them like this;

the bag is mine la borsa è mia
the car is yours l'macchina è tua
the dog is theirs il cane è loro

or we can use the possesive pronouns as adjectives, like this;

my bag la mia borsa
your car la tua macchina
their dog il loro canee

Object pronouns

Sometimes, 'someone or something' does something to 'someone or something else'. and then we use the object pronouns, before the verb;

  • mi - me
  • ti - you(only singular informal)
  • lo,la - him/her (both also used for "it" and "her" is also used for formal "you" often with a capital La.)
  • ci - us
  • vi - you (plural both informal and formal)
  • li,le - them

For example;

English Literally Italian
we watch her her we-watch la guardiamo
you watch me him you-watch mi guardi
you wait for her her you-wait la aspetti
you look for him her you-look lo cerchi
I bring him him I-bring lo porto
you look for it it you-look lo cerchi

Indirect object pronouns

But there can be a third 'someone or something else' with certain verbs. If so then the cases for 'him/her' annoyingly and 'them' change to;

  • gli,le - him/her (both also used for "it" and "her" is also used for formal "you")
  • gli,loro
English Literally Italian
I throw you the ball you I-throw the ball ti lancio la pella
I bring him the car him I-bring the car gli porto la macchina
I tell her the truth her I-tell the truth le dico la verità
I bring you(formal) the car you(formal) I-bring the car Le porto la macchina
I tell us the street us I-tell the street ci dico la strada
I tell her the street her I-tell the street le dico la strada
I tell them the street them I-tell the street gli dico la strada

Stressing the pronouns

If you put the pronoun after the verb for emphasis it changes to these.

  • me
  • te - you(only singular informal)
  • {lui,lei} - he/she (both also used for "it" and "she" is also used for formal "you")
  • noi
  • voi - you (plural both informal and formal)
  • loro

This is much more like normal English, for example;

English Italian
we-watch her guardiamo lei
you-watch me guardi me
you-wait for her aspetti lei
you-look for him cerchi lui
I-bring him porto lui
you-look for them cerchi loro

And if you want to stress an indirect object then you put a meaning to before it;

English Italian
I-throw the ball to you lancio la pella a te
I-bring the car to him porto la macchina a lui
I-tell the truth to her dico la verità a lei
I-bring the car to you(formal) porto la macchina a Lei
I-tell the street to us dico la strada a noi
I-tell the street to her dico la strada a lei
I-tell the street to them dico la strada a loro