How do you say WAKE UP in Italian?

How exactly do you say wake up in Italian? What is more appropriate to ask 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 get started! Iniziamo!

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How do you say wake up in Italian?

Singular: Svegliati!

Svegliati is how you say wake up in Italian when you are addressing only one person who you know well and are on familiar terms with, such as a friend or a relative.

This common sentence in Italian is made up of only one element.

Svegliati
Imperative “you” form of svegliarsi, to wake (oneself) up, which comes from svegliare, to wake (someone) up

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.

io	—
tu	svegliati
lui, lei	si svegli
noi	svegliamoci
voi	svegliatevi
loro	si sveglino

For example, you could 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.

Now, how do you say wake up in Italian to groups of people? You will need to conjugate the imperative verb in the second person plural. Let’s see what this form is in the next paragraph.

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Plural: Svegliatevi!

Svegliatevi is how you translate wake up in Italian when you are addressing more than one person. It doesn’t matter if these people are your bosses at work or friends of yours. You will use this form in both formal and informal contexts.

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.

Now, how do you say wake up in Italian when you want to be polite? Read on to find out!

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Polite: Si svegli!

If you are just visiting Italy and often meet new people, unless you both agree to use the informal pronoun tu, you will have to stick to the polite pronoun Lei when talking to other adults and people you are not familiar with. With children, it’s customary to use tu regardless 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 imperative conjugation of the verb svegliarsi for the subject pronoun lei? Si svegli.

That said, how do you formally tell someone to wake up in Italian?

I wouldn’t really use this kind of sentence with a person you don’t know though. It will sound very rude!

And that’s the end of our lesson on how to say wake up in Italian in all its forms!

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