Personal subject pronouns take the place of a noun to indicate who or what is performing the action of the verb.

Io vado a scuola.
​Lui mangia la pasta. 

I go to school.
​He eats pasta. 

1ST PERSON
​
2ND PERSON
​
​
​3RD PERSON

SINGULAR

io
​
tu
​
lui
lei
​
Lei*

I

you

he
she
​
​You (formal)

PLURAL

noi

voi


​loro

we

you (plural)


they

Legacy pronouns:

egli
ella
​esso/essa

he
she
​it

essi/esse
​Loro*

they
​You (formal pl.)

*The second person formal pronouns , Lei and (the very rarely used) Loro are grouped with third person pronouns because they share conjugation.

The legacy pronouns are rarely used in modern spoken Italian, you may hear them regionally, particularly in Southern dialects, but otherwise you will probably only encounter them in literature or very formal situations.

• egli and ella refer only to people - they have been replaced in modern speech by lui and lei
• esso / essa and essi / esse refer to animals or inanimate objects 
• Loro as the polite/formal form of voi  (you pl.) has fallen out of use in recent years, and it is common and acceptable to use voi in both formal and informal situations. 
• lui, lei, and loro are now commonly used colloquially to also refer to animals and things.