Imperatives (Gli imperativi)

Practice:Imperatives

• Call me tonight!
• Be happy!
• Have a good time!

All of these expressions are commands to other people to do something. The grammatical term for such commands is the imperative. As you can see from the examples above, imperatives do not always express urgency, as the word implies. Sometimes they express authority (Everyone be quiet!), but also instruction (Turn left at the light and take your first right) or advice (Try to exercise more and not drink as much coffee).

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Forms

Unlike English, Italian has different imperative forms for its verbs, depending on whom the speaker is addressing (one person or more than one, informally or formally, affirmatively or negatively). In this section, you will navigate through the many different forms. The trick to avoiding a situation of detail overload is distinguishing the more intuitive forms from those which are less obvious. In the chart below the less obvious forms are bolded.

Regular Verbs

	parlare	credere	finire
tu	parla! talk!	credi! believe!	finisci! finish!
	non parlare! don't talk!	non credere! don't believe!	non finire! don't finish!
voi	parlate! (you all) talk!	credete! (you all) believe!	finite! (you all) finish!
	non parlate! (you all) don't talk!	non credete! (you all) don't believe!	non finite! (you all) don't finish!
noi	parliamo! let's talk!	crediamo! let's believe!	finiamo! let's finish!
	non parliamo! let's not talk!	non crediamo! let's not believe!	non finiamo let's not finish!
Lei	parli! (you formal) talk!	creda! (you formal) believe!	finisca! (you formal) finish!
	non parli! (you formal) don't talk!	non creda! (you formal) don't believe!	non finisca! (you formal) don't finish!
Loro	parlino! (you plural formal) talk!	credano! (you plural formal) believe!	finiscano! (you plural formal) finish!
	non parlino! (you plural formal) don't talk!	non credano! (you plural formal) don't believe!	non finiscano! (you plural formal) don't finish!

• The tu imperative form for -are verbs ends in -a.
• The negative tu imperative for all classes of verbs is formed by the infinitve.
• The tu imperatives for -ere and -ire verbs and the voi and noi imperatives for all three classes of verbs are identical to the non-imperative forms of the present tense.
• The Lei and Loro forms are the imperatives used to give commands, formally, to one person and more than one person respectively. It helps to note that the ending vowels on these forms are the opposite of what you might expect for their classes, with the -are verbs ending in -i and the -ere and -ire verbs ending in -a.

Irregular Verbs

Essere and avere have very irregular imperative forms:

	essere	avere
tu	sii	abbi
noi	siamo	abbiamo
voi	siate	abbiate
Lei	sia	abbia
Loro	siano	abbiano

The following verbs have irregular tu forms:

dare	da' (dai)
fare	fa' (fai)
stare	sta' (stai)
andare	va' (vai)
dire	di'

Many verbs have irregular Lei and Loro forms:

	Lei	Loro
andare	vada	vadano
bere	beva	bevano
dare	dia	diano
dire	dica	dicano
fare	faccia	facciano
stare	stia	stiano
uscire	esca	escano
venire	venga	vengano

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Imperatives with Object Pronouns

When you use an object pronoun with an imperative (e.g. Call me tonight, Bring her the book, Don't eat it, Don't worry about it), in Italian, you attach that pronoun to the tu, noi and voi imperatives:

• Andiamoci! (Let's go there!)
• Chiamami stasera! (Call me tonight!)
• Non farlo! (Don't do it!)

When you add a pronoun to an infinitive, as in the last example, drop the final -e before adding it.

When pronouns attach to the tu forms of dare, dire, fare, stare, or andare, the first consonant of the pronoun doubles, except with the pronoun gli:

• Fallo! (Do it!)
• Dimmelo! (Tell it to me!)
• Vacci! (Go there!)

With formal imperatives, do not attach the pronouns, but place them before the verb.

• Lo faccia! (Do it!)
• Me lo dica! (Tell it to me!)
• Ci vada! (Go there!)

Practice Exercises