Svegliati!
| Words you should know | Svegliarsi (to wake oneself up) |
| When to use this | With 1 person you’re familiar with |
| When NOT to use this | With strangers (doh!) and groups |
Svegliati!
Wake up! (singular, informal)
Svegliati, Gabriele! Farai tardi a scuola!
Wake up, Gabriele! You’ll be late for school!
Svegliati, sono già le otto passate!
Wake up, it’s already past eight o’clock!
Svegliarsi is a reflexive verb. Svegliati is the second-person singular conjugation of svegliarsi in the imperative mood.
Imperative mood conjugation of svegliarsi
| io | — |
| tu | svegliati |
| lui, lei | si svegli |
| noi | svegliamoci |
| voi | svegliatevi |
| loro | si sveglino |
For example, you can say…
Svegliati un po’! Non puoi farti sempre ingannare dalle persone!
Wake up for a change! You can’t always let people fool you!
Che si sveglino. Non hanno più cinque anni.
They need to wake up. They are no longer five years old.
Svegliatevi!
| When to use this | With a group of people |
| When NOT to use this | With strangers (doh!) and 1 person at a time |
Svegliatevi!
Wake up! (plural)
Italian, unlike English, has two forms of “you”. There’s a singular “you” (tu) and then there’s a plural “you” (voi). If you are addressing a group, you must conjugate any verb or pronoun accordingly.
If you take a closer look at the conjugation table above, you will see that the conjugation for the subject pronoun voi is svegliatevi!
Svegliatevi, bambini. È pronta la colazione.
Wake up, children. Breakfast is ready.
Si svegli!
| When to use this | With 1 person you’re NOT familiar with |
| When NOT to use this | With friends, family and groups |
When speaking formally, Italians address each other with the subject “she”, lei. Use Lei in the written form if you want to be very polite.
Si svegli!
Wake up! (polite)
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