Italian pronouns
There're a lot of pronouns in italian, and many of them can be used as adjectives too
when they precede a name. As a general rule, pronouns have the same gender and number of the name
they refer to.
The different classes of pronouns are listed below:
- Personal Pronouns
- Possesive Pronouns/Adjectives
- Reflexive Pronouns
- Demostrative Pronouns/Adjectives
- Indefinite Pronouns/Adjectives
- Interrogative Pronouns/Adjectives
- Relative Pronouns
- Relative Clauses
Italian Personal Pronouns
The personal pronouns are used to indicate the subject, the object or the indirect object of the sentence. In the 3rd singular person, they're variable in gender.
Subject Pronouns
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Subject personal pronouns are used as substitute for the subject noun to avoid repetition,
or when the subject of the sentence is the speaker himself (in the case of "I"-"io") or the
addresse (in the case of "you-"tu/voi").
In the use of this kind of pronouns, though, Italian is particular. In Italian, verbs conjugate,
and have a different form for every person. Look at the following example:
Io dormo I sleep
egli dorme he sleeps
essi dormono They sleep
As you can see, the verb changes its desinence as the subject changes. Because of this, you will never
hear an italian speaker say "io dormo", or "essi dormono". They would simply say "dormo" or "dormono".
In spoken Italian, the subject pronouns "egli" and "ella" are seldom used, cause they sound too literary
and old fashioned.
They're replaced by the forms "lui"
and "lei", which should only be used as direct or indirect objects.
The pronoun "esso" is used to talk about inanimated things or animals whose names are male.
For example:
esso è un cane. It is a dog.
The pronoun "essa" is used to talk about inanimated things or animals whose name are female.
For example:
essa è un'alta montagna. It is a tall mountain.
Object Pronouns.
| Italian | English | ||
| Strong Forms | Weak Forms | ||
| Direct Object | Indirect Object | ||
| me | mi | me | |
| te | ti | you | |
| lui, sé | lo | gli | him |
| lei, sé | la | le | her |
| esso, essa | lo(male nouns), la(female nouns) | gli(male nouns), le(female nouns) | it |
| noi | ci | us | |
| voi | vi | you | |
| loro, essi, esse | li(male nouns), le(female nouns), loro | loro | them |
Complement pronouns are a bit difficult to understand in Italian. They exist in to two different forms: the weak form is usually placed before the verb, and can be used only when it is the direct object or the indirect object of the verb.
Lo incontro sempre sull'autobus I always met him on the bus
Paolo mi ha venduto un libro Paolo sold me a book
In the imperative mode, participle, gerund or in the infinitive mode, they usually stick to the end of the verb:
Passami una fetta di pane Hand me a slice of bread
Devi raccontarlo a paolo You have to say this to Paolo
There's only one exception to this rule: loro. Even when it is used as a weak pronouns, it always follows the verb and never stick to it.
Strong forms can be used as direct object and indirect object too, but they're mainly used for expressing prepositional objects:
Sono andato al cinema con lei I went to the cinema with her
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Possessive Pronouns/Adjectives
Italian possessive pronouns and adjectives are quite easy. Look at the table below:
| English | Italian | |||
| Male | Female | |||
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| my, mine | mìo | mièi | mia | mie |
| your, yours | tùo | tuòi | tua | tue |
| his, her, hers, its | suo | suoi | sua | sue |
| our, ours | nòstro | nostri | nostra | nostre |
| your, yours | vòstro | vostri | vostra | vostre |
| their, theirs | loro | |||
When they're used as adjectives, they're placed between the article and the noun they refer to:
Il cane the dog
il mio cane my dog
When they're used as pronouns, they're preceded by the article:
Il mio cane è un pastore tedesco, il tuo è un Siberian Husky
My dog is a German Sheepherd, yours is a Siberian Husky
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Reflexive Pronouns
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Io mi lavai I washed myself
But when the verb is in the present infinitive, present gerund and both the participle forms, they stick to the end of it:
Non spararti(sparare + ti)! Don't shoot yourself!
Sparatosi After shooting himself
In compoud tenses, they preced the auxiliary:
Si è sparato He has shot himself
In the past of infinitive and gerund, they stick to the auxiliary:
essersi sparato
essendosi sparato
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Demonstrative
There two demonstrative pronouns in Italian and they work as adjectives as well. They're
questo(this) and quello(that). They modify their desinences like "-o" adjectives:
Questo è il mio libro This is my book
In the example above "questo" is a pronoun, while below it is an adjective
Questo libro è molto vecchio This book is very old
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Indefinite Adjectives/Pronouns
Indefinite Adjectives
There're a lot of indefinite adjectives in Italian. Some of them work like normal "-o" adjectives; others
are invariable, or are used with singular nouns only. The most useful indefinite adjectives are listed below:
a)quàlche(some): it is an invariable adjective, and it is used before singular nouns only. If you need a plural version of "qualche", you can use "alcuni"(male) or "alcune"(female) which can be used as pronouns too
b)qualùnque, qualsìasi(anything): They're invariable adjectives, and they're used before singular nouns only.
c)pòco(a few): this has the same desinences of the "-o" adjectives. It can be used as a pronoun too
d)tànto(a lot of): this has the same desinences of the "-o" adjectives.
e)mòlto(many, much, very): this has the same desinences of the "-o" adjectives.
f)tròppo(too many, too much): this has the same desinences of the "-o" adjectives.
g)tùtto(all): this has the same desinences of the "-o" adjectives.
h)nessùno(nothing, none): this has the same desinences of the "-o" adjectives, and it is used in the singular only.
Please note that "nessuno" can be used as a pronoun too.
i)ògni(each): invariable.
l)ciascùno(each one): it works like "-o" adjectives, but it is used in the singular only. It can be used as a pronoun too.
Indefinite Pronouns
The most useful indefinite pronouns are listed below. As for the adjectives, some of them are invariable
and others have the singular form only:
a)uno(one): it is used in the singular only and has a female form:"una".
b)qualcuno (-a)(somebody, someone): It is used in the singlar only.
c)ognuno (-a)(each one): this has the same desinences of the "-o" adjectives but it is used in the singular form only.
d)chiunque(Everyone): this is an invariable, singular pronouns.
e)qualcosa(something): as above.
f)niente, nulla(nothing): nothing.
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