How do you say go away in Italian?

How exactly do you say go away 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!

Vai…?
Go…?

Let’s start! Iniziamo!

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How do you say go away in Italian?

Singular: Vai via! Vattene

Vai via and vattene are how you translate go away in Italian when you are addressing only one person you are on familiar terms with.

Vai via is made of two elements.

Vai
Imperative for “you go”, informal

Via
Away

Vai via e non farti più vedere!
Go away and never show your face again!

Vai via, Gabriele. Non sei il benvenuto qui.
Go away, Gabriele. You are not welcome here.

Vai can be shortened to va’, with an apostrophe (never as và, that’s a common mistake learners make and a few natives make as well!). It’s the second person imperative form of the verb andare, meaning to go. This verb has an irregular conjugation.

io	—
tu	vai
lui, lei	vada
noi	andiamo
voi	andate
loro	vadano

Vai a prendermi un po’ di latte, per favore.
Go get me some milk, please.

Andiamo a prendere un gelato, vi va?
Let’s go get some ice cream, shall we?

We then have via, literally meaning away.

As a feminine noun, la via, this word also translates street or way.

Abito in Via Gramsci n. 9.
I live at 9 Gramsci Street.

C’è solo una via d’uscita da questa grotta.
There is only one way out of this cave.

The other translation, vattene, is a lonely verb. It features an imperative conjugation of the verb andarsene, literally meaning to go away.

io	—
tu	vattene
lui, lei	se ne vada
noi	ce ne andiamo
voi	andatevene
loro	se ne vadano

Now, what do you have to say to say go away in Italian to groups of people? You will need to conjugate the verbs andare and andarsene in the second person plural. Let’s see what these forms are in the next paragraph.

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Plural: Andate via! Andatevene

Andate via and andatevene are how you translate go away in Italian when you are addressing more than one person.

Andatevene immediatamente!
Go away immediately!

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 the verb andare according to the latter pronoun, which is voi.

From the tables in the previous paragraph, you can see that the imperative conjugation you have to use is andate for andare and andatevene for the verb andarsene.

Now, how do you say go away in Italian when you need to be polite? Keep on reading to find out!

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Polite: Vada via! Se ne vada!

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.

Vada via! Non la voglio più vedere!
Go away! I never want to see you again!

Basically, when speaking formally, Italians address each other with the subject “she”, lei. If you want to formally translate go to bed into Italian, you will have to use a third person singular conjugation of the verb andare, which is vada, and se ne vada from the verb andarsene.

I would advise you against using these forms, however, because they are pretty rude!

And that’s it, now you know how to say go away in Italian in all its forms!

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