What does lei in Italian mean?

What is the meaning of the word lei in Italian? The article explains the full meaning, pronunciation along with bilingual examples and instructions on how to use lei in Italian.

The word lei in Italian means she, you, you, to address sbd formally, to address sbd formally, address someone in the third person. To learn more, please see the details below.

Listen to pronunciation

Meaning of the word lei

she

pronome (pronome soggetto femminile)

(pronoun: Replaces noun--for example, "He took the cookie and ate it." "I saw you yesterday.")
Lui è una persona socievole, lei invece no.
He's a sociable person while she isn't.

you

pronome (appellativo formale all'interlocutore)

(pronoun: Replaces noun--for example, "He took the cookie and ate it." "I saw you yesterday.")
Lei mi faccia sapere quando arriva, per cortesia.
Please let me know when you arrive.

you

sostantivo maschile (la terza persona nell'uso formale) (formal)

(pronoun: Replaces noun--for example, "He took the cookie and ate it." "I saw you yesterday.")
Bisogna dare del "lei" a chi non si conosce.
In Italian you must address people you do not know with the formal "you."

to address sbd formally

to address sbd formally

address someone in the third person

verbo transitivo o transitivo pronominale (usare la forma di cortesia)

Let's learn Italian

So now that you know more about the meaning of lei in Italian, you can learn how to use them through selected examples and how to read them. And remember to learn the related words that we suggest. Our website is constantly updating with new words and new examples so you can look up the meanings of other words you don't know in Italian.

Do you know about Italian

Italian (italiano) is a Romance language and is spoken by about 70 million people, most of whom live in Italy. Italian uses the Latin alphabet. The letters J, K, W, X and Y do not exist in the standard Italian alphabet, but they still appear in loanwords from Italian. Italian is the second most widely spoken in the European Union with 67 million speakers (15% of the EU population) and it is spoken as a second language by 13.4 million EU citizens (3%). Italian is the principal working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy. An important event that helped to the spread of Italian was Napoleon's conquest and occupation of Italy in the early 19th century. This conquest spurred the unification of Italy several decades later and pushed the language of the Italian language. Italian became a language used not only among secretaries, aristocrats and the Italian courts, but also by the bourgeoisie.