The Italian Imperative: Explained

The imperative form, in Italian, is used to:

Give a command

Give exhortations

Advise or invite someone to do something.

It is a rather regular form, with just a few irregular exceptions.

What makes the imperative very easy, is that it exists just in the present tense and it’s used just in the second person singular (you informal and formal = tu and lei) and first person plural (we = noi), and the second person plural (you all = voi)

Examples of imperatives

Mangialo! – Eat it!

Non fumare! – Don’t smoke!

Non andarci! – Don’t go there!

Vieni qui! – Come here!

Provalo! – Try it!

Guarda! – Look!

Italian vs English

Important: sometimes it’s hard to draw a parallel between English and Italian with the imperative, because English tends to be, overall, a more indirect language than Italian. If you’re an English speaker, you should know that it is totally fine to use the imperative in Italian and that it is not rude most of the time. Intonation plays an important role, though; with the pitch of your voice, you can make the “command” more or less intense.

Informal vs formal imperative

It’s important to note that in Italian we make a distinction between informal and informal imperatives. This is key, because

In Italian, we use the imperative just to address people

In Italian, we can address people informally (by using “tu,” the 2nd person singular ) or formally (by using “lei,” the 3rd person singular or “you polite”).

For simplicity, I’ll start with the informal imperative, which is the most common and tends to cover a lot of informal interactions in everyday Italian.

How to Use the INFORMAL Imperative

The imperative can be conjugated only with tu, voi, e noi. Here we explore the use of tu e voi (the main informal patterns) and noi.

Imperative forms of tu and voi are the same as in the present tense, with the exception of the –are verbs, to which an -a is added to the root of the verb. No changes are needed for verbs ending in –ere and –ire

The imperative of noi is identical to the present tense and it is used to encourage or urge It is equivalent to the English form “Let’s…“

	Mangi-ARE	Prend-ERE	Apr-IRE
TU	mangi-a! / eat!	prend-i! / take!	apr-i! / open!
VOI	mangi-ate! / eat!	prend-ete! / take!	apr-ite! / open!
NOI	mangi-amo! / let's eat!	prend-iamo! / let's take!	apr-iamo! / let's open!

Irregular forms of the imperative

The imperative mood has just a few irregular verbs. The most common ones are essere and avere.

sii paziente! – be patient!
siate pazienti! – be patient (you all)!
abbia pazienza! – have patience!
abbiate pazienza! – have patience (you all)!

The negative imperative (informal pattern)

To make a negative imperative, (don’t do it, don’t eat it, etc.), you’ll need to place a “non” before the voi version. For the tu version, you should use the infinitive verb preceded by non.

non correre! – don’t run!
non fumare! – don’t smoke!
non bere! – don’t drink!

but..

non correte – don’t run!
non fumate! – don’t smoke!
non bevete ! – don’t drink!

The imperative with pronouns

The imperative mood is often matched with the pronouns. Most of the time, the pronouns are attached at the end of the verb, making one word with the verb.

mangialo! – eat it!
non toccarlo!/non lo toccare!*– don’t touch it!
non mangiarli/non li comprare* – don’t buy them!

* In the negative form, the pronouns can either precede the verb or merge with it at the end.

The informal imperative of fare, dare, stare, dire, andare

There are some verbs that are very common and that have an apostrophized form of the imperative of the second person singular, TU:

fare becomes fa’ – fa’ silenzio! (be quiet!)
dare becomes da‘ – da’ una mano a…! (give a hand to..)
stare becomes sta’ – sta’ seduto (sit!)
dire becomes di‘ – di’ la verità (say the truth!)
andare becomes va‘ – va’ via (go away!)

When these verbs are coupled with a pronoun, the first letter of the attached pronoun is doubled, with the exception of gli and its compound forms.

Examples:

Fammi vedere – let me see!
Dimmi la verità! – tell me the truth!
Dammi la borsa! – give me the bag!
Digli il segreto! – tell him the secret!

How to use the FORMAL imperative

To give an order or advice to someone you don’t know very well (or to whom you need or want to show respect) or to invite that person, we use the “polite you”, the formal imperative,Lei. The formal imperative uses the subjunctive conjugation. If you don’t know the subjunctive yet, just memorize the pattern for regular verbs in the table. For irregular verbs, scroll below.

	Mangi-ARE	Prend-ERE	Apr-IRE
positive	mang-i! / eat!	prend-a! / take!	apr-a / open!
negative	non mang-i! / don't eat!	non prend-a! / don't take!	non apr-a / don't open!

Examples of formal imperatives.

Venga qui! – come here, please

Mi telefoni domani – Call me tomorrow, please

Prenda questo – take this, please

The imperative with LORO

In some books, they also teach the imperative with loro to address a group of people formally. This is an obsolete use of Italian and I don’t personally teach it.

The formal imperative and pronouns

When it comes to pronouns, the formal imperative requires the pronouns to be placed before the verb.

Signore, lo prenda – Sir, take it

Signora, me lo dia – Madame, give it to me to

The formal imperative of irregular verbs

There are a number of irregular verbs in the formal imperative, here are some of the most common ones.

Sia! – be!
Abbia! – have!
Vada! – go!
Venga! – come!
Dica! – tell!
Dia! – give!
Faccia! – do / let!

You can learn more about the imperative in one of these excellent textbooks.

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4 Comments

Olga Petruk
November 6, 2016 @ 9:28 am

Hi Serena, could you please contact me by my mail. I need a practice of learning Italian. Thank you.

Amnon
November 23, 2016 @ 10:17 am

Very nice;) I would prefer that you wrote everything in Italian.

- Serena Capilli
  November 23, 2016 @ 3:17 pm
  
  A breve (stasera o domani) pubblicherò una nuova sezione sul blog tutta in italiano, si chiamerà l’Italia che non conosci, e parlare di tutte quelle destinazioni turistiche che molti stranieri non conoscono, ma che secondo me sono la vera bellezza dell’Italia.
  
Brian
July 24, 2022 @ 5:05 pm

Hi, thank you for your wonderful Italian Pills!