The use of formal and informal personal pronouns is a subject that needs revisiting often, especially if your mother tongue is English and you are not used to using these two forms of addressing people. In this post I’m going to concentrate on the ways in which we use the formal and informal pronouns when talking about ‘you’ (singular) in Italian.

1. Lei (you, formal) or Tu (you, informal):

these two pronouns are used as verb subjects, meaning that they do the action, e.g. Io prendo un caffè macchiato, e lei cosa prende? (I’ll have a caffè macchiato and you, what will you have? formal) or ….. e tu cosa prendi? (and you, what will you have? informal); Io sto bene, grazie, e lei? (I’m well, thank you, and you? formal) or Io sto bene, grazie, e tu? (I’m well, thank you, and you? Informal)

2. Preposition followed by lei (you, formal) or te (you, informal):

when using a preposition such as per (for), con (with), di (of/about), a (to) etc., it should always be followed by either lei (you formal) or te (you informal), e.g. Signor Rossi, c’è una lettera per lei (Mr Rossi, there’s a letter for you, formal) or Mario, c’è una lettera per te (Mario, there’s a letter for you, informal); Il direttore mi ha parlato molto bene di lei (The director told me very good things about you, formal) or Il direttore mi ha parlato molto bene di te (The director told me very good things about you, informal)

3. Le (to you, formal) or ti (to you, informal):

these two forms are called indirect pronouns, and they are used instead of a lei (to you, formal) or a te (to you, informal). A lei/a te is used to add emphasis to ‘you’ especially when talking about likes and dislikes, e.g.  a me non piace il caffè, mentre a lei piace, vero? (I don’t like coffee, but you do, don’t you? formal). Yet if you want to simply ask ‘do you like coffee?’, formal, you would say le piace il caffè? (do you like coffee? formal). The same goes for the informal:  a me non piace il caffè ma a te piace, vero?(I don’t like coffee, but you do, don’t you? informal).  Otherwise just use the simple question ti piace il caffè? (do you like coffee? informal). Another example would be: Signor Belli, ho bisogno di parlare a lei soltanto (Mr Belli, I need to talk to you alone, formal), or Signor Belli, ho bisogno di parlarle (Mr Belli, I need to talk to you, formal),  Mario, ho bisogno di parlare prima a Giovanni, poi a te (Mario, I need to talk first to Giovanni, then to you, informal), or Mario, ho bisogno di parlarti (Mario, I need to talk to you, informal)

4. La (you, formal) or ti (you, informal):

these two pronouns are direct objects, e.g. La ringrazio (I thank you, formal) or ti ringrazio (I thank you, informal); spero di rivederla presto (I hope to see you again soon, formal) or spero di rivederti presto (I hope to see you again soon, informal)

5. Si (yourself, formal) or ti (yourself, informal)

these two are reflexive pronouns, e.g. si sente bene? (Do you feel okay? formal) or ti senti bene? (Do you feel okay? informal); vuole lavarsi le mani? (Would you like to wash your hands? formal) or vuoi lavarti le mani? (Would you like to wash your hands? informal).