Imperativo: Loro Form (Formal Plural)

The Loro imperativo is the formal plural command — the form a head waiter uses to a table of guests, the form a court clerk uses to address a panel of judges, the form an old-school flight attendant uses to a cabin of passengers. It exists, it is grammatical, and you should be able to recognize it. But you should also know upfront that modern spoken Italian has almost entirely abandoned it: in normal life, even the most polite waiter will use voi for a group of customers. The Loro imperative survives mainly as a fossil of an earlier register, plus a few institutionalized service phrases that have not yet been displaced.

This is therefore a comprehension page more than a production one. Learn to recognize Loro imperatives when you hear them in formal contexts; do not feel obligated to use them yourself.

The form: borrowed from the congiuntivo presente 3pl

Like the formal singular Lei imperative (which is the 3rd-singular subjunctive), the formal plural Loro imperative is the 3rd-plural form of the congiuntivo presente — exactly the form you would use after spero che loro... or voglio che loro...

Note that stress is rhizotonic — on the root, not the ending: pàrlino, crèdano, dòrmano, vèngano, fàcciano. Mispronouncing these with end stress (parlìno) is a giveaway.

Where you actually hear it

In contemporary Italian, the Loro imperative is largely confined to four contexts:

1. Hospitality service to multiple guests. Hotel concierges, head waiters in upscale restaurants, museum guides addressing a tour group, and luxury-train conductors still routinely use Loro. Si accomodino. Mi seguano. Vogliano scusare il ritardo.

2. Highly formal institutional language. Courtroom officials, parliamentary clerks, ceremonial diplomatic protocol, and certain liturgical contexts. You will encounter it in scripts, transcripts, and formal correspondence even when no one would actually say it aloud.

3. Older speakers, especially in formal social contexts. Italians born before about 1960 often use Loro naturally with strangers in a way that younger speakers do not.

4. Frozen polite phrases. A few set expressions resist replacement even in everyday formal use: si accomodino (please be seated), vogliano gradire (please accept), abbiano la cortesia di... (be so kind as to…).

In a modern restaurant, the same waiter may say si accomodino (Loro, formulaic) to seat a table but switch immediately to cosa volete bere? (voi, normal plural) once the formality of the seating has passed. This blending of registers is itself a sign that Loro is becoming a relic.

Clitics: ALWAYS in front

This is the rule that distinguishes the formal imperatives (Lei and Loro) from all the others: clitic pronouns precede the verb, written as separate words. They never attach as enclitics. This is the same behavior they show with any congiuntivo or indicativo verb form, which makes sense given that the formal imperatives are grammatically borrowed from the subjunctive.

For the full attachment system across all five imperative persons, see clitic attachment with the imperativo.

Negative: just non in front

Unlike the negative tu (which uses the infinitive), the formal imperatives are completely regular in the negative — just place non in front of the verb, and any clitics in front of that.

Why Loro is dying: the larger pragmatic shift

The decline of the Loro imperative is part of a bigger change in Italian politeness. Throughout the 20th century, Italian (like many European languages) has been steadily simplifying its formality system. Voi-as-formal-singular died first, replaced by Lei in the south and by Lei + occasional regional voi elsewhere. Loro-as-formal-plural has been following the same trajectory more slowly: most Italians under 50 do not actively use it.

Three factors accelerated the shift:

1. Verbal ambiguity. Parlino! could be a command to a respectful "you all" or a wish about some unspecified third parties ("may they speak!"). Italians solve this in everyday life by switching to voi (parlate!), which is unambiguous.

2. Postwar democratization of address. The egalitarian register that emerged in postwar Italian media, advertising, and education actively favored less formal pronoun use across the board.

3. Tourism and globalization. Service workers dealing with international clientele moved toward more universally intelligible forms — and voi is what every Italian learner in the world is taught as plural.

The result is that even in restaurants and hotels where Loro persists in seating phrases, the rest of the interaction tends to drift toward voi within a few minutes.

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

The Loro imperative borrows its endings from the 3rd-plural congiuntivo presente (parlino, vengano, siano, abbiano, facciano). Stress is on the root. Clitics always precede the verb. Negation is regular: non in front.

But the more important takeaway is register: Loro is now a marked, formal, somewhat archaic form. Recognize it in hotels, restaurants, ceremonies, formal letters, and older speech; produce it only if you are working in formal hospitality or want to signal extreme deference. For ordinary plural address — even with strangers — the voi form is the modern default. For its singular counterpart, see the Lei form. For the consolidated paradigm of all five imperative persons, see the complete imperative reference.