If you walk through any Italian city you will see the infinitive everywhere — on shop doors (Spingere, Tirare), on road signs (Rallentare, Dare la precedenza), and on every "no smoking" sticker in the country (Non fumare). Open a cookbook and the same form takes over: Mescolare bene gli ingredienti, versare in una pentola, cuocere a fuoco lento. This page explains why Italian uses the infinitive — a verb form that on its face means "to do something" — to give orders, and when you should reach for it instead of a true imperative.
The convention: written impersonal commands use the infinitive
Italian draws a sharp line between commands directed at a specific person and instructions addressed to no one in particular. When you tell your friend to slow down, you use the tu imperative: Rallenta! When a road sign tells whoever happens to be driving past to slow down, it uses the infinitive: Rallentare.
The logic: an imperative needs a subject — even an unspoken one. Rallenta implies "(you) slow down." But a sign, a recipe, or a form addresses no specific reader. The infinitive, which carries no person at all, is the natural fit for an instruction floating free of any addressee.
Road signs and public notices
Italian street signs and shop signage are the most visible home of the impersonal infinitive. Every learner who walks into a Milanese café and pushes when they should pull has met this construction.
Spingere
Push (on a door)
Tirare
Pull (on a door)
Rallentare
Slow down (road sign)
Dare la precedenza
Yield (give right of way)
Non oltrepassare la linea gialla.
Do not cross the yellow line.
Tenere la destra.
Keep right.
Compare what the spoken equivalent would sound like. A driving instructor sitting next to you would say Rallenta! (tu) or Rallenti! (formal Lei) — both true imperatives. The sign says Rallentare because it has no specific you in mind.
Recipes: the infinitive register par excellence
Italian recipe writing is almost entirely in the infinitive. Open any cookbook, food magazine, or recipe blog and you will find page after page of mescolare, aggiungere, versare, cuocere, servire. This is the unmarked, neutral register for cooking instructions — using the imperative or addressing the reader as tu would feel oddly personal, almost intrusive, as if the chef were standing in your kitchen.
Mescolare bene gli ingredienti in una ciotola capiente.
Mix the ingredients well in a large bowl.
Versare il composto in una pentola e portare a ebollizione.
Pour the mixture into a pot and bring to a boil.
Cuocere a fuoco lento per circa venti minuti, mescolando ogni tanto.
Cook on low heat for about twenty minutes, stirring occasionally.
Salare e pepare a piacere, poi servire ben caldo.
Salt and pepper to taste, then serve piping hot.
Forms, offices, and bureaucratic instructions
Anywhere you fill out a form in Italy — at the post office, the bank, the tax office, on a website — you will find the impersonal infinitive guiding you through each field.
Compilare in stampatello.
Fill in in block letters.
Firmare in alto a destra.
Sign at the top right.
Non scrivere fuori dal riquadro.
Do not write outside the box.
Allegare copia del documento d'identità.
Attach a copy of your ID document.
The bureaucratic register strongly prefers this form because it sounds neutral and procedural. A form that addressed you as tu ("compila in stampatello") would feel jarringly informal; addressing you as Lei ("compili in stampatello") would work but is wordier and less common in print.
Manuals, packaging, and warning labels
Product instructions, warning labels, and user manuals are another natural habitat for the infinitive. Look at any bottle of medicine, bag of pasta, or appliance manual.
Conservare in luogo fresco e asciutto.
Store in a cool, dry place.
Agitare bene prima dell'uso.
Shake well before use.
Tenere lontano dalla portata dei bambini.
Keep out of reach of children.
Non superare la dose giornaliera consigliata.
Do not exceed the recommended daily dose.
Leggere attentamente il foglietto illustrativo prima dell'uso.
Read the package insert carefully before use.
The negative form: 'Non + infinitive'
The most ubiquitous example of all is Non fumare — visible on doors, walls, taxis, and trains across Italy. To negate an impersonal infinitive command, just put non in front. This is the same construction used for the negative tu imperative, but here it is genuinely impersonal rather than addressed to a specific person.
Non fumare.
No smoking.
Non disturbare.
Do not disturb.
Non toccare.
Do not touch.
Non sporgersi dal finestrino.
Do not lean out of the window. (classic train notice)
Non parlare al conducente.
Do not speak to the driver. (bus notice)
Spoken vs. written: never use the infinitive in person
Here is the crucial restriction: the impersonal infinitive belongs to written register. If you say Rallentare! out loud to a person, you sound like a sign post. To tell someone to slow down in conversation, choose the right register:
| Context | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Sign / recipe / form | infinitive | Rallentare |
| Speaking to a friend, child, family member | tu imperative | Rallenta! |
| Speaking to a stranger, customer, in a formal context | Lei imperative | Rallenti! |
| Speaking to a group | voi imperative | Rallentate! |
Rallenta, c'è una curva!
Slow down, there's a curve! (to a friend driving)
Signora, rallenti per favore.
Ma'am, please slow down. (to a stranger)
How this differs from English
English has nothing quite like this. English uses the same form — the bare imperative — for both spoken commands ("Slow down!") and written instructions ("Slow down" on a sign, "Mix the ingredients" in a recipe). The form does not change with the medium.
Italian, by contrast, has two distinct constructions and uses them according to whether the instruction is spoken or written, and whether it addresses someone specific or no one in particular. The infinitive is the impersonal written form; the imperative is the personal spoken form. Confusing them is one of the most reliable tells of a non-native writer of Italian.
This also differs from Spanish, which uses imperatives even on signs (Empuje — push, formal usted imperative) far more often than the infinitive. Italian's preference for the impersonal infinitive in written commands is one of its distinctive traits.
Common mistakes
❌ Mescola bene gli ingredienti, poi aggiungi il sale.
Stylistically wrong for a written recipe — addressing the reader as tu sounds like a personal note, not standard cookbook prose.
✅ Mescolare bene gli ingredienti, poi aggiungere il sale.
Correct — recipe register uses the impersonal infinitive throughout.
❌ Rallentare!
Wrong if shouted to a person — you sound like a road sign speaking, not a human.
✅ Rallenta! / Rallenti!
Correct — speak to a person with the tu or Lei imperative depending on register.
❌ Non fumi qui, per favore.
Confusable: this is a polite Lei imperative ('please don't smoke here'), addressed to a person — fine in speech, but it is NOT what the sign on the wall says.
✅ Non fumare.
Correct as a written sign — impersonal infinitive, addressed to nobody in particular.
❌ Tu compili in stampatello.
Wrong on a form — using a subject pronoun and a personal verb form is far too direct for printed instructions.
✅ Compilare in stampatello.
Correct — bureaucratic forms use the impersonal infinitive.
❌ Conserva in luogo fresco.
Wrong on a product label — the imperative 'conserva' personalizes the instruction. Labels use the infinitive.
✅ Conservare in luogo fresco.
Correct — product labels and storage instructions use the infinitive.
Key takeaways
The impersonal infinitive is the written, no-specific-addressee form of the Italian command. It governs road signs, recipes, forms, manuals, warning labels, and any other instruction printed for an indefinite audience.
Three points to remember:
Written instruction with no specific addressee → infinitive. Spoken command to a real person → imperative. Choose by medium and audience, not by the action being commanded.
Negate with non placed before the infinitive: Non fumare, Non toccare, Non superare la dose.
Italian recipe register is overwhelmingly infinitive, not imperative. Writing a recipe with tu sounds like a friend's text, not a cookbook. Match the genre.
Once you internalize the spoken/written split, the impersonal infinitive will start to seem natural — and your written Italian will look noticeably more idiomatic.
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Open the Italian course →Related Topics
- L'Infinito: OverviewA1 — The infinito is Italian's most flexible verb form — it serves as the dictionary entry, the second verb in chains, the form after prepositions, a noun in its own right, and the negative tu imperative. Here's the whole landscape.
- L'Imperativo: OverviewA2 — How Italian gives commands: the five-person imperative system, the strange asymmetry between affirmative and negative, and the borrowing of the formal forms from the subjunctive.
- Imperativo: Tu Form (Informal Singular)A2 — How to give commands to one person you address informally — including the truncated va', da', di', fa', sta' forms and the consonant doubling they trigger with clitics.
- Il Gerundio: OverviewA2 — Italian's non-finite -ando / -endo form — what it is, what it does, and how it differs from the English '-ing' that learners always want to map onto it.