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.
​I go to school.
​
​Lui mangia la pasta. 
He eats pasta. 

PERSON

1ST 
​
2ND 
​
​
​3RD 

SINGULAR

io   I
​
tu  you
​
lui  he
lei  she
Lei* You (fml)

PLURAL

noi  we

voi  you (pl.)


​loro  they

Legacy pronouns:

egli    he
ella   she
​esso/essa he/she/it

essi/esse  they
​Loro*   you pl fml.

*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.