Introduction
Introduzione
Direct objects are the nouns in a phrase that receive the action of the verb. In the sentence “I love you”, the direct object is “you” and “I” is the subject.
In Italian, when the objects are personal pronouns - like “you” - they change from their subject form: tu becomes ti. This is similar to English when “I” changes to “me”. You say “he loves me”, rather than “he loves I”.
There are two positions objects can have in the word order of a sentence. In the indicative tenses, it can come directly before the first verb in the phrase:
Io ti amo.
I love you.
Or, it can be attached to the last verb of the phrase, which is required for the imperative mood but optional for the indicative:
Amami.
Love me.
Like the personal subject pronouns, the direct object pronouns also have both a formal and informal as well as singular and plural “you”.
In Italian, when the objects are personal pronouns - like “you” - they change from their subject form: tu becomes ti. This is similar to English when “I” changes to “me”. You say “he loves me”, rather than “he loves I”.
There are two positions objects can have in the word order of a sentence. In the indicative tenses, it can come directly before the first verb in the phrase:
Io ti amo.
I love you.
Or, it can be attached to the last verb of the phrase, which is required for the imperative mood but optional for the indicative:
Amami.
Love me.
Like the personal subject pronouns, the direct object pronouns also have both a formal and informal as well as singular and plural “you”.
| Singular | First-person |
mi
me
|
|---|---|---|
| Second-person |
ti
you
singular informal
|
|
| Third-person |
lo
him
it
masculine
si
himself
herself
itself
themselves
La
you
singular formal
la
her
it
feminine
|
|
| Plural | First-person |
ci
us
|
| Second-person |
vi
you all
plural informal
Vi
you all
formal
|
|
| Third-person |
li
them
masculine
le
them
feminine
Li
you all
masculine formal
Le
you all
feminine formal
|