Notes on the Impersonal in the Italian Language

Overview ~ Language context ~ Reframing the impersonal

Examples of signs in Italian and English showing the use 

of impersonal in Italian and imperative in English.

When you’ve been learning Italian for a while, certain patterns jump out. For us, one of those patterns is the love of the impersonal. It’s everywhere—on street signs, in official notices, and even in casual conversation. And once you notice it, you can’t unsee it and then you start to wonder about it. Many examples are included in our Street Sign Language Lesson series of posts.

Overview

Take a walk in an Italian park and you’ll see: È vietato calpestare l’erba. (Literally “It is forbidden to walk on the grass.”) Compare that to the English equivalent: Keep off the grass. The Italian version feels softer, more formal, and less bossy. It doesn’t tell you what to do. It just states a fact: walking on the grass is forbidden. No one is pointing a finger at you.

Italian signs lean on impersonal phrasing; English signs go for the imperative.

Here are a few other examples:

• Si prega di non fumare → “One is kindly requested not to smoke.”
• Divieto di accesso alle persone non autorizzate → “No entry for unauthorized personnel.”

English equivalents? No smoking. Keep out. Direct, and to the point.

Language context

Over time, we started wondering how this language tendency is tied into cultural aspects of Italy. We’re not linguists, just curious learners, but here’s what we’ve noticed and what research supports:

1. It softens authority.
   Instead of a command (“Don’t do this”), Italian often states an impersonal condition (“It is forbidden…”). It’s not you doing the action; it’s the world arranging itself a certain way.
   
   
2. It diffuses blame. È stato deciso (“It was decided”)
   By whom? Not important. Italian formal language frequently leaves the agent unspoken.
   
   
3. It keeps things polite.
   Si prega di… feels gentler than “Don’t do that.” A classic way to phrase requests with gentleness and distance.
   
   
4. It aligns with the norms of a moderately high-context culture.
   This part often gets oversimplified, so we explain this point a little more next.

According to cross-cultural communication research (Edward T. Hall’s Beyond Culture; Katan, Ting-Toomey; Wierzbicka’s work on pragmatics), Italian tends toward high-context communication—at least relative to English, especially American English.

High-context cultures rely more on:

• shared background knowledge
• situation and tone
• indirect or softened phrasing
• linguistic strategies that avoid unnecessary confrontation

Italian isn’t as high-context as Japan or China, but it sits higher than English-speaking cultures or northern Europe.

Impersonal constructions—si impersonale, passive forms, and nominal prohibitions (Divieto di…)—fit well within that communication style.

High-context tendencies (Italy, Spain, France):

• Use of indirect requests
  → Magari potremmo… (“Maybe we could…”) - We hear this used a lot!
  
  
• Impersonal signs
  → Si prega di…, È vietato…
  
  
• Agent-less decisions
  → È stato stabilito… (“It has been established…”)

Low-context tendencies (U.S. English, German, Scandinavian languages):

• Clear agents and instructions
  → “You must show ID”
  
  
• Imperatives
  → “Do not enter”
  
  
• Explicit reasoning or rules spelled out

Language reflects cultural norms; it doesn’t necessarily cause them. Italians are perfectly capable of being direct when needed. But in public, formal, and polite communication, Italian gravitates toward gentler, more distanced constructions.

Impersonal use in some languages:

• Italian uses si for the impersonal.
• French uses on.
• English uses “one” (rarely) or a dummy subject “it.”
• Finnish uses the passive.

All languages have tools to avoid naming the agent. Italians just reach for those tools more often in certain registers.

Reframing the impersonal

Once you start noticing the impersonal in Italian, it quietly rewires how you pay attention. At first, we frowned at these constructions thinking why so vague, why so roundabout? But over time they became something else entirely: a key to understanding how communication works here. We began to see how a sign, an announcement, or even a bureaucratic notice wasn’t just delivering information but reflecting a cultural preference for softening the edges of interaction.

Instead of feeling irritated at yet another si prega or è vietato, we began reading these constructions as small gestures toward social harmony. A sign was no longer telling you what to do; it was simply describing the state of things. That shift in tone, once visible, changes your own orientation. You start looking for what’s implied rather than what’s commanded. And maybe most surprisingly, you find yourself wanting to adopt a bit of that gentler, less confrontational mode of communication—something we could probably use more of in English-speaking contexts.