How do you say don’t worry in Italian?

How exactly do you say don’t worry in Italian? What’s more appropriate to say depending on the relationship between you and the other person?

In this lesson, we will take a look at the different ways you can translate this sentence into Italian. Read on to learn them all!

Let’s start! Iniziamo!

---

How do you say don’t worry in Italian?

Singular: Non ti preoccupare!

Non ti preoccupare is how you translate don’t worry in Italian for addressing only one person you are on familiar terms with.

This common sentence in Italian is made of three elements.

Non
“Not” particle

Ti
Reflexive pronoun for “you”

Preoccupare
Infinitive verb preoccupare, to worry

Non ti preoccupare. Ce la caveremo.
Don’t worry. We’ll be fine.

Non ti preoccupare, Enrico. Il treno arriverà fra poco.
Don’t worry, Enrico. The train will be here shortly.

Are you wondering why the reflexive pronoun can be placed before the verb or even appended to it? It might be handy to learn how direct object pronouns work in Italian here.

The verb preoccupare is most often used in its reflexive form, preoccuparsi. This is why we need to use a reflexive pronoun here meaning “yourself”. When you worry in Italian, you are really worrying yourself.

Let’s see what the present tense conjugation of preoccuparsi is.

io	mi preoccupo
tu	ti preoccupi
lui, lei	si preoccupa
noi	ci preoccupiamo
voi	vi preoccupate
loro	si preoccupano

This verb can also be used to translate the English verbs to tend to or to care. For example, you could say…

Giorgia si preoccupa troppo.
Giorgia worries too much.

Matteo si preoccupa di innaffiare le piante.
Matthew takes care of watering the plants.

Now, what do you have to say to say don’t worry in Italian to groups of people? You will need to conjugate the reflexive pronoun in the second person plural. Let’s see what this form is in the next paragraph.

---

Plural: Non vi preoccupate!

Non vi preoccupate! is how you translate don’t worry in Italian when you are addressing more than one person.

Italian has two kinds of “you”, unlike English. There’s a singular “you” and then there’s a plural “you”. If you are addressing a group, you will need to conjugate any verb or pronoun accordingly.

The reflexive pronoun for the plural form of the subject pronoun “you”, voi, is vi. This is why we will say non VI preoccupate. Also note how the verb is conjugated in this case. You don’t have to conjugate the verb for negative imperative forms for the singular “you” pronoun, as seen in the previous paragraph.

Non preoccupatevi, ragazzi, torneremo prima di sera.
Don’t worry, guys, we will be back before nightfall.

Now, how do you say don’t worry in Italian when you need to be polite? Keep on reading to find out!

---

Formal: Non si preoccupi!

If you are just visiting Italy and often meet new people, unless you both agree on using the informal pronoun tu you will have to stick to the polite pronoun Lei when talking to other adults and people you are not on familiar terms with. With kids, it’s customary to use tu, no matter the degree of familiarity.

This is the equivalent of she in English. Basically, when speaking formally, Italians address each other with the subject “she”, lei.

What’s the reflexive pronoun for the subject pronoun lei? Si.

That said, how do you formally say don’t worry in Italian?

And that’s it, now you know how to say don’t worry in Italian in all its forms!

---

What next?

❤️ If you liked this lesson on how do you say don’t worry in Italian, consider sharing it with your social media friends who are also studying Italian.