ti

Forms

ti (second person singular, unstressed, te before lo, la, li, le and ne)^[3][4]

Etymology

The pronoun is inherited from Latin tibi (“to you”), the dative of Latin tū (“you”), according to DELI and Nocentini.^[5][6] In Tuscany the dative form took over the work of the accusative tē in unstressed position, while in the northern dialects it replaced that form altogether.^[5][6] Other sources give both Latin cases as the source,^[3][7][4] and GRADIT, DEI and Gabrielli derive it from the accusative alone.^[8][9][10] Nocentini compares this with French and Spanish, where the accusative took over the dative instead, and gives the same outcome in Sardinian ti and Romanian ți.^[6] The form ⟨te⟩ before ⟨lo⟩ and ⟨ne⟩ is explained by Nocentini as an assimilation to the vowel of the following pronoun.^[6]

The Latin dative goes back to Old Latin tibei and Proto-Italic *tefei, from Proto-Indo-European *tébʰi;^[2][11] Umbrian tefe (“to you”) shows the same Italic form.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first records of both uses, as a direct object (“you”) and as an indirect object (“to you”), are in Dante, 1300–1313.^[5] GRADIT dates the word to before 1313,^[8] DEI to the 13th century,^[9] and Nocentini and Devoto–Oli to the 14th century.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian could attach the pronoun to a finite verb, as in Dante's “vegnonti a pregar” (Purgatorio 5), where the modern language puts it before the verb.^[12] The full form te could still replace it in poetry in the 18th century: DELI quotes Migliorini's remark that Giuseppe Parini, correcting the printed text of his poem, changed saettarti into saettarte.^[5]

In the northern dialects ti became the stressed pronoun of the second person, the equivalent of standard tu and te.^[6] In the spoken language it doubles a following or preceding a te, and it serves as an ethical dative expressing the speaker's or listener's involvement.^[8][3][12]

Timeline

• 1300–1313 – Dante uses ti as a direct and an indirect object.^[5]
• 14th century – Nocentini's and Devoto–Oli's date for the pronoun.^[6][3]
• 1525 – Pietro Bembo uses T as the name of the letter.^[5]
• 18th century – Parini changes saettarti into the poetic saettarte.^[5]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. you, as a direct object, before a finite verb or attached to an infinitive, gerund or imperative: ti aspetto alla stazione, vengo a svegliarti.^[8][3][4]
2. To you, for you, as an indirect object: ti mando le foto stasera.^[8][3][12]
3. In reflexive and pronominal verbs of the second person singular: ti alzi presto?, non ti preoccupare.^[8][7][4]
4. (colloquial) As an ethical dative, showing involvement: ti sei finito tutta la torta!.^[8][12][10]
5. (colloquial) Repeating a te or used for emphasis: a te non ti va mai bene niente, cosa ti credi?.^[8][3][10]

Related words

• te
• tu
• tuo
• mi
• Latin tibi

Usage notes

Before lo, la, li, le and ne the pronoun takes the form te and comes first (te lo regalo), and it comes before ci and si but after mi.^[4][12][7] After a one-syllable imperative the t is doubled: fatti, statti.^[3][7] It is elided only before a vowel: t'ammiro.^[12]

Ti is also the name of the letter t, feminine or masculine and invariable.^[8][3] DELI dates it to 1879 in Tommaseo–Bellini, with earlier uses of T as a name in Bembo (1525) and Vasari (1550), and derives it from the Latin name of the letter, pronounced te.^[5] Nocentini explains the vowel -i as an analogy with the preposition di and the pronoun.^[6] In music ti is also a name of the note B.^[2]

References

1. ^ Canepari, Luciano, DiPI: Dizionario di pronuncia italiana, online ed., dipionline.it
2. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3783
10. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli