Imperativo: Noi Form (Let's) | Italian Grammar

To say "let's go!" or "let's eat!" or "let's see what happens!" in Italian, you don't need a helping verb the way English needs let's. Italian has a single noi imperative form — a real conjugated verb — that does the whole job in one word: andiamo!, mangiamo!, vediamo!.

This is the inclusive hortative: the speaker is inviting both themselves and the listener(s) to do something together. It's everywhere in everyday Italian — at the start of meals, the end of evenings, the beginnings of trips, in any moment a group decides to act collectively. And the form couldn't be simpler: the noi imperative is identical to the noi presente indicativo.

How to form it

Take the 1st person plural of the presente indicativo and use it as a command. That's it.

Infinitive	Noi imperative	English
parlare	parliamo!	let's talk!
mangiare	mangiamo!	let's eat!
scrivere	scriviamo!	let's write!
prendere	prendiamo!	let's take / get!
dormire	dormiamo!	let's sleep!
finire (isc)	finiamo!	let's finish!
andare	andiamo!	let's go!
fare	facciamo!	let's do!
venire	veniamo!	let's come!
essere	siamo!	let's be!
avere	abbiamo!	let's have!

The -isc verbs do not insert the infix in the noi form — exactly as in the presente indicativo, the isc only appears in the singular forms and the loro. So finiamo!, not finisciamo!

The two key irregulars siamo and abbiamo are the same as the presente indicativo: there is no separate imperative paradigm to learn for them.

Andiamo, è già tardi!

Let's go, it's already late!

Mangiamo qualcosa di leggero stasera.

Let's eat something light tonight.

Vediamo cosa succede dopo.

Let's see what happens next.

Facciamo una pausa, sono stremato.

Let's take a break, I'm exhausted.

Prendiamo un caffè al bar qui sotto?

Shall we grab a coffee at the cafe downstairs?

Parliamone con calma, senza arrabbiarci.

Let's talk about it calmly, without getting angry.

Negative: just add non

The negative noi imperative is simple — add non in front. There is no infinitive substitution as there is for the tu form.

Non parliamo più di lavoro, è il nostro giorno libero.

Let's not talk about work anymore, it's our day off.

Non andiamo da loro stasera, sono troppo stanca.

Let's not go to their place tonight, I'm too tired.

Non facciamo finta di non aver visto.

Let's not pretend we didn't see.

Non litighiamo per una sciocchezza.

Let's not fight over something silly.

The naturalness of these negatives is one of the things that makes the noi imperative such a flexible everyday tool — Italian negotiates collective decisions ("let's not do X", "let's go ahead with Y") through this single form, where English needs the longer let's not.

Clitic placement: ATTACH to the end

Like the affirmative tu imperative — and unlike the Lei imperative — clitics in the noi form attach directly to the verb. The verb and the clitic become a single written word, and the stress remains on the verb's normal syllable (it does not shift to accommodate the new ending).

Verb	clitic	Result	English
parliamo	gli	parliamogli!	let's speak to him!
mangiamo	lo	mangiamolo!	let's eat it!
vediamo	ci	vediamoci!	let's see each other! / let's meet!
diciamo	glielo	diciamoglielo!	let's tell him about it!
andiamo	ne	andiamocene!	let's get out of here!
alziamo	ci	alziamoci!	let's get up!

In the negative, both placements are valid (similar to the negative tu form): clitics can either attach to the verb or stand between non and the verb. Attachment is more common in casual modern Italian:

Non diciamogli niente per adesso.

Let's not tell him anything for now. (attached)

Non gli diciamo niente per adesso.

Let's not tell him anything for now. (separated — equally correct)

Reflexive verbs and the -ci attachment

Reflexive verbs in the noi form take -ci as their reflexive clitic, and that clitic attaches to the verb:

Alziamoci, ho fame.

Let's get up, I'm hungry.

Sediamoci qui, c'è ombra.

Let's sit here, there's shade.

Vediamoci alle sette davanti al cinema.

Let's meet at seven in front of the cinema.

Sbrighiamoci, il treno parte tra dieci minuti!

Let's hurry, the train leaves in ten minutes!

Salutiamoci qui — io devo prendere l'autobus.

Let's say goodbye here — I need to catch the bus.

The expression andiamocene! ("let's get out of here!") combines two clitics — the reflexive ci and the partitive ne — into a single attached cluster. It's one of the most idiomatic noi forms in casual Italian:

Andiamocene, qui non c'è più niente da fare.

Let's get out of here, there's nothing left to do.

Forza, andiamocene prima che inizi a piovere.

Come on, let's leave before it starts raining.

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The noi imperative shines in spoken Italian because it's brief and inclusive — it makes group decisions in one word. Andiamo! ("let's go!"), vediamo! ("let's see!"), dai, facciamolo! ("come on, let's do it!") — these are the rhythmic units of conversational Italian. Train your ear for them in films and you'll start using them naturally.

Imperative or indicative? Tone tells you which

A potential ambiguity: since parliamo is identical in form to the presente indicativo, noi parliamo could mean either "we are talking" (statement) or "let's talk!" (command). In practice, the imperative reading is signalled by:

Intonation — the imperative is uttered with a more emphatic, exclamatory contour.
Context — the speaker is initiating an action rather than describing one.
The dropped subject — Italians say andiamo!, not noi andiamo!, when they mean "let's go." Including the subject noi tilts the reading toward statement.

Noi parliamo italiano a casa.

We speak Italian at home. (statement)

Parliamo italiano oggi, dai!

Let's speak Italian today, come on! (imperative)

In writing, the exclamation mark and context resolve the ambiguity. In speech, the rising-and-falling exclamatory contour is unmistakable.

A uniquely Italian construction

English has no single-word equivalent of the noi imperative. To express let's go! English needs the periphrastic auxiliary let (originally a causative verb meaning "allow") plus the bare infinitive. Italian collapses both into a conjugated verb form.

This is one of the rare places where Italian is genuinely more economical than English. The same is true of Spanish (vamos!) and French (allons!), but the form is always there in Italian for any verb, regular or irregular, with no auxiliary needed.

Italians use the noi imperative far more often than English speakers use let's — it's a default discourse move for any group activity. Listen for it in a restaurant or at a family gathering and you'll hear mangiamo, prendiamo, vediamo, andiamo, parliamo, facciamo repeatedly throughout the conversation. Adopting this habit will make your Italian sound noticeably more native.

Common mistakes

❌ Andiamoci a casa.

Incorrect — andare doesn't take a reflexive ci here. The plain noi form is andiamo.

✅ Andiamo a casa.

Correct — no reflexive needed; ci would mean 'there', which is redundant with 'a casa'.

❌ Lasciamo andare!

Imperfect — this isn't a true noi imperative; lasciare + infinitive is a different (causative) construction. To say 'let's go', use the noi imperative directly.

✅ Andiamo!

Correct — the conjugated noi form alone means 'let's go'.

❌ Vediamo ci alle sette.

Incorrect — clitics in the affirmative imperative attach to the verb, not dangle after it.

✅ Vediamoci alle sette.

Correct — the reflexive ci attaches to vediamo to form a single word.

❌ Non andiamo cene!

Incorrect — when both clitics attach (ce + ne), they cluster together and attach to the verb without spaces.

✅ Non andiamocene!

Correct — andiamo + ce + ne → andiamocene.

✅ Non ce ne andiamo!

Also correct — separated form, with the clitic cluster between non and the verb.

❌ Finisciamo i compiti.

Incorrect — -isc verbs do NOT insert the infix in the noi form (the same is true in the presente: noi finiamo, not noi finisciamo).

✅ Finiamo i compiti.

Correct — finire in noi is finiamo, with no isc.

Key takeaways

The noi imperative is the simplest of all Italian command forms:

It's identical to the noi presente indicativo — parliamo, mangiamo, andiamo, facciamo. No new paradigm to learn. Even essere (siamo) and avere (abbiamo) follow the indicativo.
Negative just adds non — non parliamo, non andiamo. No infinitive trick.
Clitics attach in the affirmative (parliamogli, mangiamolo, andiamocene). In the negative, they can attach or precede — both correct.

The noi imperative is a true Italian-style economy: where English needs let's + verb, Italian uses one conjugated word. Once you internalize this, expressions like vediamo!, andiamocene!, and parliamone will start to feel like the natural way to launch any group action.

For the imperative system as a whole, see the imperative overview. For commands to one person, see tu (informal) and Lei (formal). For the negative tu form, see the dedicated page — it works completely differently from the noi negative.

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