Italian All-in-One For Dummies (151 page)

Subjunctive (subjective; see
Chapter 6
in Book IV)

Conditional (used when something is dependent on certain conditions, such as “what if . . .”; see
Chapter 5
in Book IV)

Imperative (used with a sense of immediacy, though it's often made to sound like a request)

You can buffer your commands by including yourself in them. For example, in English, you may say, “Let's do that,”
which is more gentle than saying, “Do that.” Most commands, however, are directed at other people. So you need to be familiar or formal, and you need to know how many people you're addressing. Because you'll probably use familiar commands more often than formal ones, surprisingly often in fact, the first part of this section focuses on those “friendly” forms. The rest covers irregular imperative forms, formal commands, where to put pronouns that you use with commands, and commonly used commands.

Constructing commands (of the tu, noi, and voi variety)

Mangia!
(
Eat!
) says the proverbial Italian restaurant advertisement. This command is directed specifically at you in an informal way. To create the
tu
form of a positive or affirmative command, you first need to figure out whether the infinitive belongs to the
-are, -ere,
or
-ire
family of conjugations. Check out some affirmative
tu
commands in
Table 3-2
.

Table 3-2 Tu Commands in the Affirmative

Notice anything in
Table 3-2
? The only
tu
form that changes belongs to
-are
verbs. And you don't use the personal subject pronouns. As for
-ere
and
-ire
verbs (including
isc
verbs), the indicative
tu
and the imperative
tu
forms are the same.
Scrivi una lettera
can mean
you are writing a letter,
or it can mean
write a letter.
Leggi un libro
can indicate that
you are reading a book,
or it can be a command, probably from a teacher:
Read a book
.

More good news as far as the familiar commands go: The
noi
and
voi
present indicative and imperative forms are also identical for the standard and regular
-are, -ere,
and
-ire
verbs. The
noi
form comes across as more of a suggestion. For example:
Mangiamo!
(
Let's eat!
)
Andiamo!
(
Let's go!
)
Finiamo!
(
Let's finish!
) You use the
voi
form to address friends because it can have a stronger edge to it —
Andate!
(
Go!
) — but it also retains its present indicative conjugated form.

To make these commands negative, you simply put
non
before them, though only with
noi
and
voi.
For example:
Non mangiate
(
don't eat
) and
non
finite
(
don't finish
). To make a
tu
command negative, you start with
non
(
don't
), but then you follow it with the original infinitive, such as these examples.

Non mangiamo più carne!
(
Let's not eat meat anymore!
[
we
(
noi
)])

Non mangiate più grassi!
(
Don't eat fats anymore!
[
you,
plural
(
voi
)])

Non mangiare caramelle.
(
Don't eat candies.
[
you,
singular
(
tu
)])

Non parlare con loro.
(
Don't talk to them.
[
you,
singular (
tu
)])

Use
tu, noi,
and
voi
forms only with people whom you're familiar with, such as family, friends, peers, children, and pets.

Dealing with irregular imperatives for tu, noi, and voi

To create commands with irregular verbs, the same rules apply as for regular forms (see the preceding section).
Noi
and
voi
commands are the same as the present indicative tense conjugations, though perhaps said in a different tone of voice. The
tu
forms are different enough that they deserve a little more attention.
Table 3-3
lists the familiar
tu
commands, both positive and negative, of some irregular verbs. The apostrophes show that some commands are simply shortened versions of the
tu
form in the present indicative tense.

Table 3-3 Singular Familiar (Tu) Commands in Irregular Verbs

Occasionally, you'll hear someone say
Dai!
This isn't a comment
on your mortality but a way to say
Come on!
It's actually a form of encouragement. It's also used to mean
Really?
in the sense of
Oh, come on,
or
You're kidding, right?
In English, a similar phrase may be
Come off it!