Insieme in italiano by Giulia Po DeLisle, Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and Fabiana Viglione, Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
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Tu or Lei?
The simple rule for informal and formal you is that you use the informal tu for family, friends, children, and animals. The formal Lei is used with older people who you may know well but are not family, with strangers, and with people in professional contexts (teacher, wait staff, service providers, sales associates), including people you address with titles.
However, the actual rules are much more complicated. In general, young people use the informal with other young people, and, overall, Italians today are much less formal than they were just a few generations ago. Although Italians do not expect non-Italians to know all of the rules for using tu and Lei, they will appreciate your efforts to use both, even if imperfectly.
Esempio
*Benone: Very well. (Bene + one). Suffix -one means that something is big.
Una conversazione informale
Photo by Mettevanderheide, CC BY-SA 4.0
Una conversazione formale
Photo by Presidencia de la Nación Argentina, CC BY 2.0
Esempio
• Buongiorno, Professoressa Viglione. Molto piacere! Come sta?
• Buongiorno, Presidente Obama. Che piacere conoscerLa! Sto bene, grazie. E Lei?
• Non c’è male.
• Di dov’è?
• Sono di Firenze. Sono italiana. E Lei?
• Sono delle Hawaii e sono americano.
• Arrivederci, Presidente! A presto!
• Arrivederci, a presto!
Content above adapted from Tutt* a Tavola, Volume 1, by Stacy Giufre and Melina Masterson CC BY NC 4.0
Giufre, S., Masterson, M., & Open Textbook Library. (2021). Tutt* a tavola! (Vol. Volume 1 /, Ser. Open textbook library). University of Massachusetts Amherst Library. March 20, 2024,
English | Informale | Formale |
---|---|---|
Hello | Ciao | Buongiorno, buonasera* |
What is your name? | Come ti chiami? | Come si chiama? |
Where are you from? | Di dove sei? | Di dov’è? |
How are you? | Come stai? | Come sta? |
Goodbye, See you later. | Ciao; A presto; A dopo; etc. | Arrivederci; ArrivederLa; a presto... |
* Buongiorno is used in the morning while buonasera is used in the afternoon and evening. Buona notte is only used when one person in the conversation is about to go to sleep.
Other useful expressions:
What is your name? | Qual è il tuo nome? | Qual è il Suo nome? |
What is your last name? | Qual è il tuo cognome? | Qual è il Suo cognome? |
Risposte alla domanda: Come stai?
Benissimo | 😁 !!! |
Bene | 😀 |
Così Così | 😑 |
Insomma | 😏 |
Male | 😢 |
Malissimo | 😱 |
Attività
A. Formale o Informale? Choose between the options listed below to indicate how you would address the people listed in each question.
1. La professoressa DeLisle: Di dov’è? / Di dove sei?
2. Il Presidente Mattarella: Come stai? / Come sta?
3. Un bambino: ArrivederLa / Ciao
4. La mamma: Ciao / Buongiorno
5. Un altro studente: Come ti chiami? / Come si chiama?
B. INSIEME! Una conversazione informale. Find a partner and perform the informal conversation, so that it reflects your personal information.
C. INSIEME! Una conversazione formale. Choose a new identity for yourself from the choices below (or come up with your own idea) and perform the formal conversation with a partner to reflect the personal information of the person you chose.
Michelle Obama
Il Principe Harry
Simone Biles
Tom Brady
Oprah Winfrey
Mother Teresa
Julie Chen
Taylor Swift
Il Dalai Lama
Snoop Dogg