Grammar Lesson 3:

Italian Personal Pronouns

Pronouns (pronomi) are words used in the sentence to replace a specific noun already named -
or a noun phrase -, thus avoiding repetition and making language more pleasant and efficient.
In Italian pronouns can be classified in six categories:

1. personali (personal)
2. possessivi (possessive)
3. dimostrativi (demonstrative)
4. indefiniti (indefinite)
5. relativi (relative)
6. interrogativi / esclamativi (interrogative / exclamation)

PERSONAL PRONOUNS are used to indicate the subject of an action (which is expressed by
the verb), or the object of a sentence.

The Italian subject pronouns are:

	SINGULAR	MEANING	PLURAL	MEANING
1st	io	I	noi	we
2nd	tu	you	voi	you
3rd	egli, ella, esso, essa; lui, lei, Lei	he, she, it; he, she, Informal you	essi, esse loro	they

Egli (he) and ella (she) are used for people, whereas esso and essa are used for things (it).

Besides, egli and ella are used in literary and more formal written Italian, whereas in everyday
context they have been largely replaced by lui (he) and lei (she).

The plural forms essi and esse are used for both people and things, but the informal form loro
is usually referred only to people.

—> NOTE that lei (often written with capital L - "Lei") is also used as a form of address
(informal you). In that case, it can be used for both men and women, and the verb agrees
accordingly. 

It's very important to acknowledge that whereas in English subject pronouns are indispensable
to understand who is the subject of the verb, in Italian the verb ending makes it already
clear who performs the action, so subject pronouns are generally dropped.
They are used, though, in certain situations.

For emphasis	"Tu cosa faresti al mio posto?" "What would you do in my place?" "Me ne occupo io." "I'll take care of it"
For contrast or clarity	"Io non lo mangio, voi fate pure." "I'm not going to eat that, you go along if you like." "Mangialo tu, a me non va più." "You can have it, I'm not hungry anymore."
After anche (too) and neanche (neither)	"Lo penso anch'io." "I, too, think so." "Non vuoi ballare? Beh, neanch'io." "You don't want to dance? Well, neither do I."
When there is no verb	"Chi l'ha detto?" "Lui." "Who said so?" "He said so."

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