Italian Imperative Chart, Rules, Irregular Verbs

The Italian imperative chart

The table gives four regular verbs, parlare, scrivere, dormire and finire, for tu, Lei, noi and voi. Tu is the “you” for one friend (parla), and Lei is the formal “you” for one person (parli). Noi means “let's,” as in parliamo, “let's talk,” and voi is “you all” (parlate).

The negative tu command is a different form, non plus the infinitive, the dictionary form of the verb (non parlare). Lei adds non to the same form instead (non parli). Finire adds -isc- for tu and Lei (finisci, finisca) but not for noi and voi (finiamo, finite). The table has no io column, because the imperative has no io form.

Regular patterns: -are, -ere and -ire verbs

Italian verbs fall into three groups by the ending of the infinitive: -are (parlare), -ere (scrivere) and -ire (dormire, finire). In the tu command, an -are verb ends in -a (parla). An -ere or -ire verb uses the tu form of the present tense, the form for “you do”: credi and dormi, or capisci for a verb with -isc-.

Lei swaps the vowel: an -are verb ends in -i (parli), and -ere and -ire verbs end in -a (creda, dorma, capisca). The table shows the pattern for each group, from tu to voi.

Noi and voi are the same as the present tense: parliamo, crediamo, dormiamo and capiamo for noi, and parlate, credete, dormite and capite for voi. The Italian regular and irregular verbs guide explains the -isc- and spelling-change verbs.

The eight irregular tu commands

Eight irregular verbs have a tu command of their own. Andare gives va' (or vai), dare da' (or dai), dire di', fare fa' (or fai) and stare sta' (or stai), while essere gives sii, avere abbi and sapere sappi. Their negatives are regular, non plus the infinitive: non andare, non dare and so on.

For Lei, they're vada, dia, dica, faccia, stia, sia, abbia and sappia. Most voi forms are the present tense (andate, date, dite, fate, state), but essere, avere and sapere use siate, abbiate and sappiate, not the present siete, avete and sapete. The table lists all eight with their negative, Lei and voi forms.

The short forms take an apostrophe, not an accent: fa', not fà. With an accent, two of them would be other words, since dà means “gives” and dì means “day.” Treccani, the Italian dictionary and encyclopedia, notes that the long forms vai, dai, fai and stai come from the present tense and are now widespread. Our quiz accepts both forms, such as fa' and fai.

Lei commands: the present subjunctive

Lei is the formal “you” for one person, such as a stranger or a customer. A Lei command uses the present subjunctive (venga), which you make from the io form of the present tense, the form for “I.” Vengo gives venga, faccio faccia, dico dica, vado vada, esco esca, bevo beva, tengo tenga, scelgo scelga and capisco capisca.

Some verbs change their spelling to keep the sound of the io form. Cerco gives cerchi and pago gives paghi, with an h to keep the hard sound, and mangio gives mangi, with one i.

Five verbs aren't made from the io form: essere gives sia, avere abbia, sapere sappia, dare dia and stare stia. The table pairs each io form with its Lei command, and the negative is non plus the same form, as in non venga.

Where the pronouns go

With tu, noi and voi, pronouns join the end of the command as one word: dimmi, dimmelo, diciamolo, ditemelo. With Lei they go before the verb as separate words: mi dica, me lo dica. In me lo dica, me is “to me” and lo is “it.”

Reflexive verbs, such as alzarsi, “to get up,” follow the same rule: alzati for tu, si alzi for Lei, alziamoci for noi and alzatevi for voi. Siediti and si sieda work the same way, and so do accomodati and si accomodi.

A negative tu command can put the pronouns on the end or before: non dirmelo or non me lo dire. A negative Lei command keeps them before, as in non me lo dica. The table shows where the pronouns go for each person.

Why dammi has two m's

After a one-syllable command, the first letter of the pronoun doubles: da' + mi gives dammi, di' + lo dillo, fa' + lo fallo, va' + ci vacci and fa' + ne fanne. Two pronouns work the same way, so da' + mi + lo gives dammelo, and va' + ti + ne gives vattene.

Gli is the exception and never doubles: da' + gli gives dagli, and di' + gli + lo gives diglielo. Only the short forms take pronouns, so the command is dammi, never daimi. The table puts the parts beside the command they make.

Two pronouns together

With two pronouns, the one for the person comes first, and mi becomes me before lo, la, li, le and ne. The others change the same way: ti becomes te, si se, ci ce and vi ve. Mi + lo gives me lo (dimmelo, me lo dica), ci + li gives ce li (dacceli, ce li dia), ti + la gives te la (mettitela) and si + ne gives se ne (se ne vada).

Gli, “to him,” and le, “to her,” both become glie and join the next pronoun as one word. Gli + lo gives glielo (diglielo, glielo dica), and le + la gives gliela (dagliela, gliela dia). The table lists each pair with the commands it makes.

The negative tu command

A negative tu command is non plus the infinitive, the dictionary form of the verb: parla becomes non parlare, fa' non fare and va' non andare. With pronouns, both orders are right, on the end of the infinitive or before it. Alzati becomes non alzarti or non ti alzare, and dimmelo becomes non dirmelo or non me lo dire. With vattene the choice is non andartene or non te ne andare.

Before a pronoun the infinitive drops its final -e, so dire becomes dir- in non dirmelo. Noi and voi add non to the same form, and their pronouns may also go on the end or before: non alziamoci or non ci alziamo.

Verbs with no commands, and Loro

Potere, dovere and parere have no imperative, and volere's tu command, vogli, is rare, so it isn't in our quiz. Sappi, from sapere, is used to mean “know that,” as in sappi che.

Loro is the very formal “you all,” as in parlino. It's rare today, and voi (parlate) is used in its place, which is why our quiz and worksheets leave it out.

Practice the Italian imperative

The Italian imperative quiz drills these forms one at a time. You choose the persons, affirmative or negative, the number of pronouns and the verb sets, and after every answer a one-line reason gives the rule. For a class, the Italian imperative worksheets print four exercises, from writing the command to a fill-in chart, with an answer key that starts on a new page. To learn the Italian imperative rules step by step, start with tu and the eight irregular commands, then add one pronoun, and then two. Every form of the 600 verbs behind them is in the Italian verb conjugation tables. If you learn Spanish, French or German too, the Spanish commands chart, the French imperative guide and the German imperative guide each set out the forms and rules for commands in that language.

Frequently asked questions

Licenses and credits

Conjugation tables come from English Wiktionary through kaikki.org (CC BY-SA 4.0). Verbs are ranked by Hermit Dave's FrequencyWords list, built from OpenSubtitles 2018 (CC BY-SA 4.0).