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How to use reflexive pronouns in Italian?

By: Miriam Muccione Fri Aug 30 2024
Italian
Pronouns

Reflexive pronouns are words like mi(myself), ti(yourself), si(herself, himself, itself, themselves) which are used when the subject of a sentence and the object that receives the action of the verb are the same:

Io mi vesto.

I dress myself.

I am sure you have already spotted some weird looking infinitives that, instead of ending in the usual -re, end in -si. Yes, those are the infinitives of reflexive verbs imbued with the power of the reflexive pronoun si(oneself), which can transform a normal verb like lavare(to wash) into a reflexive one lavarsi(to wash oneself).

In this post, we’ll introduce you to the reflexive pronouns and how to use them with reflexive verbs in Italian. These and other tricks you will discover se ti divertirai(if you will enjoy yourself/have fun) while learning more about reflexive pronouns!

Table of Contents

    What are the Italian reflexive pronouns?

    The reflexive pronouns in Italian are given in the table below. We’ve listed them in comparison to subject pronouns and direct object pronouns, so you can see the similarities and differences:

    Subject Pronouns
    Direct Object Pronouns
    Reflexive Pronouns

    io(I)

    mi(me)

    mi(myself)

    tu(you)

    ti(you)

    ti(yourself)

    Lei(formal you)

    La(formal you)

    Si(formal yourself)

    lui(he, it)
    lei(she, it)

    lo(him, it)
    la(her, it)

    si(himself / herself / itself)

    noi(we)

    ci(us)

    ci(ourselves)

    voi(you pl.)

    vi(you pl.)

    vi(yourselves)

    loro(they)

    li, le(them)

    si(themselves)

    As you can see, reflexive pronouns mostly have the same forms as direct object pronouns, with the only difference being in the third person forms:

    • Singular: lo or la(direct object) vs. si(himself / herself / itself)

    • Plural: li or le(them) vs. si(themselves).

    Tip

    At times, you may see that the reflexives mi, ti, si, and vi drop the "i" in front of a vowel or an "h" and take the apostrophe.

    • M’asciugavo i capelli.

      I was drying my hair.

    • Quando v’alzate da tavola, ringraziate lo chef.

      When you (plural) get up from the table, thank the chef.

    However, if you are not sure whether you should drop the “i” in front of a vowel or not, do not worry! It’s optional. If you don’t drop it, it is perfectly fine not to!

    Reflexive verbs: How are they related to reflexive pronouns in Italian?

    Reflexive verbs express an action that the subject does to itself. Typically, in sentences with a reflexive verb, the subject and object are the same.

    Reflexive pronouns come with reflexive verbs and, the other way around, reflexive verbs need reflexive pronouns to conjugate.

    reflexive pronounreflexive verb

    Mi chiamo Luigi, piacere!

    My name is Luigi, nice to meet you!

    I call myself Luigi.

    Some verbs that you may find in the reflexive form, also have a non-reflexive one. Let’s have a look at an example:

    lavare(to wash)→ non-reflexive

    Lavo il pavimento.

    I wash the floor.

    lavarsi(to wash oneself)→ reflexive

    Mi lavo

    I wash (myself).

    Now let’s have a look at how you can conjugate some reflexive verbs in Italian using reflexive pronouns!

    Subject Pronoun
    lavare
    (to wash)
    mettere
    (to put)
    vestire
    (to wear, to dress)
    lavarsi
    (to wash oneself)
    mettersi
    (to put something on oneself;
    to wear something    )
    vestirsi
    (to dress oneself)

    io

    I

    mi lavo

    I wash myself

    mi metto

    I wear

    mi vesto

    I dress myself

    tu

    you

    ti lavi

    you wash yourself

    ti metti

    you wear

    ti vesti

    you dress yourself

    Lei

    formal you

    Si lava

    you wash yourself

    Si mette

    you wear

    Si veste

    you dress yourself

    lei / lui

    she / he / it

    si lava

    s/he washes her/himself

    mi mette

    s/he wears

    mi veste

    s/he dresses her/himself

    noi

    we

    ci laviamo

    we wash ourselves

    ci mettiamo

    we wear

    ci vestiamo

    we dress ourselves

    voi

    plural you

    vi lavate

    you wash yourselves

    vi mettete

    you wear

    vi vestite

    you dress yourselves

    loro

    they

    si lavano

    they wash themselves

    si mettono

    they wear

    si vestono

    they dress themselves

    Here are two observations about Italian reflexive verbs:

    • Some reflexive verbs can take an object. For example:

      subjectreflexive pronounobject

      (Io) Mi lavo le mani prima di mangiare.

      I wash my hands before eating.

      In this case, the subject does the action on themselves, but actually acts on a specific part of their body.

      Here is a slightly different case:

      reflexive pronounobject

      Mi metto un capello.

      I wear a hat.

      I put a hat on myself.

      In this case, the action of the verb directly affects the hat (the object) but they are using the hat to dress themselves (the subject), so we use the reflexive verb mettersi(to put on).

      Tip

      Note that in Italian when a reflexive verb has an object (e.g. a body part, piece of clothing, or personal belonging), we will assume that the subject is the “possessor” so they are marked by always use a definite article ("the") and not a possessive like "my".

      Rossella si è messa la sciarpa nuova.

      Rossella put on her new scarf.

      Rossella put on the new scarf.

    • Some verbs change meaning when used with a reflexive pronoun. For example:

      Pensavamo che la festa fosse stasera, ma ci siamo sbagliati.

      We thought the party was tonight, but we were wrong.

      By adding the reflexive pronoun -si, the infinitive of the verb sbagliare(to make a mistake) becomes sbagliarsi(to be wrong). It does not describe an action that the subject does to itself, but it acquires a different meaning, even if the verb conjugates like a reflexive one.

      Important

      In colloquial Italian, transitive verbs are often used in a reflexive form to create emphasis. For instance, the verb dimenticare(to forget) can be used non-reflexively in following sentence:

      Marco ha dimenticato il telefono.

      Marco forgot his phone.

      But, it can also be used in a reflexive form, so the example above would become:

      Marco si è dimenticato il telefono.

      Marco forgot his phone.

      The infinitive of the verb here would be dimenticarsi which in English does not make sense. Why do Italians do that? Mostly to emphasize that the subject did something worth telling others.

    More Info:
    For a list of common Italian reflexive verbs click the link!

    Here are two more cases to keep in mind:

    • Reflexive with negation

      In a negative sentence, non(not) comes before the reflexive pronoun + verb.

      Andrea non si è ancora alzato oggi.

      Andrea has not yet got up today.

    • Reflexives with compound tenses

      The example above gives us the chance to talk about reflexive pronouns when the verb is a compound tense like passato prossimo.

      Note that with compound tenses, the auxiliary verb for reflexive verbs is always essere(to be) and the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject.

      feminine singularreflexive pronoun

      Per Halloween, Carla si è vestita da Conte Dracula.

      For Halloween, Carla dressed up as Count Dracula.

    Where to place reflexive pronouns in Italian?

    In Italian, reflexive pronouns usually go before the verb.

    reflexive pronounverb

    Si è vestito velocemente.

    He dressed himself quickly.

    However, with some specific moods of the verb, such as the infinitive, the imperative, and the gerund, the placement can vary. Let’s check them out next!

    • Reflexive pronouns with infinitive verbs

      In the dictionary form of a reflexive verb, the reflexive pronoun will come at the end of the infinitive verb.

      However, when you use an infinitive verb in a sentence, you often have another option. When you use an infinitive for example, after another verb, you can put the reflexive pronouns either before the first verb or after the infinitive, attached to it, as in the dictionary form. For example:

      Before
      After + Attached

      Mi voglio vestire bene per la festa di stasera.

      I want to dress up for tonight's party.

      Voglio vestirmi bene per la festa di stasera.

      I want to dress up for tonight's party.

      This is common when you use:

      • a modal verb such as dovere(have to), potere(can), volere(want)

      • another verb that is typically followed by an infinitive, such as sapere(to know; to be able to), sperare(to hope), cercare(to try), andare(to go), etc.

    • Reflexive pronouns with imperative verbs

      In affirmative sentences, reflexive pronouns are placed after the imperative verb and attached to it, but in negative sentences, they can go either before or after the verb.

      Affirmative
      Imperative

      Fa freddo, mettiti il cappotto.

      It's cold, put your coat on.

      Affirmative
      Imperative

      Fa caldo, non ti mettere il cappotto.

      It's hot, don't wear your coat.

      Fa caldo, non metterti il cappotto.

      It's hot, don't wear your coat.

      Important

      When addressing someone formally with the Lei(formal you) or Loro(formal pl. you), the reflexive pronoun Si(formal yourself / formal yourselves) always comes before the verb in the imperative mood, in both affirmative and negative sentences:

      • Non Si preoccupi!

        Do not worry!

      • Signori, Si accomodino!

        Gentlemen, take a seat!

    • Reflexive pronouns with gerunds

      With a gerund, reflexive pronouns are attached to the ending of the verb. For example:

      Svegliandoci tardi abbiamo perso il treno.

      Waking up late, we missed the train.

      Exception!

      In continuous tenses like the present and past progressive, which are formed using the gerund, reflexive pronouns can go before stare(to be) or may be attached to the gerund. It’s interchangeable.

      ✅ Mi stavo facendo la doccia quando mi hai telefonato.
      ✅ Stavo facendomi la doccia quando mi hai telefonato.

      I was showering when you called me.

    • Reflexive pronouns in impersonal constructions

      You will encounter reflexive pronouns also in impersonal sentences where the verbs are reflexive.

      In Italian, to form impersonal sentences (sentences that don’t have a clear subject, but rather a generic one), we can use the impersonal pronoun si(one, generic "you," generic "they") + third person singular of the verb. Look at those sentences below!

      impersonal pronoun

      Si deve sempre essere educati.

      One must always be polite.

      impersonal pronoun

      Si dice che questo inverno sarà freddo.

      They say this winter will be cold.

      Now, when the verb of an impersonal sentence is a reflexive verb, we need to pay special attention because there is going to be a little twist and some steps to follow.

      Let’s start from translating this sentence from English to Italian:

      “One washes their hands before eating.”

      → “One” represents a generic person

      Since the general rule for impersonal sentences is that you use the impersonal pronoun si(one) with the third person singular of the verb, you might expect that the sentence would look something like this in Italian:

      impersonal pronounreflexive pronoun

      ❌ Si si lava le mani prima di mangiare.

      This sentence should be the correct one in theory, but in practice, we replace the first si (the impersonal one), with ci. This allows us to not repeat si twice in a row. Hence, the Italian translation of our sentence would be:

      impersonal pronounreflexive pronoun

      ✅ Ci si lava le mani prima di mangiare.

    How to use Italian reflexive pronouns to express reciprocity?

    Reflexive pronouns are also used to express reciprocity. In this case, they help with conjugating reciprocal verbs, which express an action that two or more people perform to each other.

    When expressing reciprocity, we only need the plural forms of reflexive pronouns, which are ci, vi, si:

    • ci(each other)→ use this when “we verb each other”

    • vi(each other)→ use this when “you verb each other”

    • si(each other)→ use this when “they verb each other”

    Let’s look at some examples:

    • Io e Francesco non ci conosciamo da tanto tempo.

      Francesco and I have known each other for a long time.

    • Tu e i tuoi amici vi incontrate spesso?

      Do you and your friends meet each other often?

    • Quando si vedono, si salutano sempre con un abbraccio.

      When they see each other, they always greet each other with a hug.

    To sum up

    • Reflexive pronouns are used in sentences in which the subject and object are the same.

    • Reflexive pronouns form like direct object pronouns, except for the third person singular and plural, which in reflexive pronouns are si(himself / herself) and si(themselves).

    • Reflexive pronouns are part of the conjugation of reflexive verbs.

    • Reflexive pronouns usually go before the verb, but when used in the infinitive, imperative, and with gerunds, they may behave differently.

    • In impersonal sentences with reflexive verbs, we have ci si + verb in the third person singular, rather than using si twice.

    • The plural reflexive pronouns ci, vi, si(our/your/themselves) can also express reciprocity.

    Ready to practice Italian reflexive pronouns? 💪 🧠 Click the link!

    Downloadable Resources

    Elevate your language-learning journey to new heights with the following downloadable resources.

    How to use reflexive pronouns in Italian?~Reflexive verbs TableHow to use reflexive pronouns in Italian?~Activities

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