Italian Pronominal Verbs: Andarsene, Fregarsene, Farcela (B1/B2)

🔍 In short. The italian pronominal verbs are verbs that fuse with one or more unstressed pronouns (si, ne, la, ci, ce, se) to form a single lexical unit with its own idiomatic meaning. The base verb andare means “to go”; the pronominal andarsene means “to leave, to clear off”. Fregare means “to rub” or “to swindle”; fregarsene means “to not give a damn”. The italian pronominal verbs split into five recognisable families: the -si reflexives that change meaning (arrabbiarsi, pentirsi), the -sene family of departure and indifference (andarsene, fregarsene, infischiarsene), the -la family of idiomatic outcomes (farcela, smetterla, cavarsela), the -cela family with double clitics (avercela, farcela), and a small group with ne alone (non poterne più, intendersene). This B1/B2 guide covers the conjugation patterns, the past-participle agreement rules, the position of the clitics with modals, the imperative forms, and a Trieste newsroom dialogue.

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What the italian pronominal verbs are

Walk into any Trieste bar at half past seven and you will hear the italian pronominal verbs within thirty seconds: me ne vado, non ce la faccio più, chi se ne frega, non se ne intende. The italian pronominal verbs are the workhorses of spoken Italian, the small verbs that carry one or two pronouns glued onto the end and mean something different from the base verb. The dictionary lists them as separate entries: andare on one line, andarsene on the next.

The defining feature of the italian pronominal verbs is that the clitic pronoun is not an optional add-on but part of the verb itself. You cannot drop the si from pentirsi; you cannot drop the ne from fregarsene; you cannot drop the la from farcela. In the italian pronominal verbs the pronouns travel everywhere the verb goes, in every tense, in every person. And in many cases the pronoun once referred to something concrete (a place, a thing, “of it”) but has now fossilised into pure idiom.

Italian grammars treat the italian pronominal verbs as a single broad category that gathers five overlapping subtypes. The Treccani entry on verbi pronominali lists them all together because they share the same grammatical fingerprint: a clitic pronoun that is obligatory and that may force its own agreement on the past participle. This guide walks through each family with concrete examples, then dives into the trickiest pieces: double clitics, modal-verb position, and the imperative.

The five families of italian pronominal verbs

Before drilling into the conjugation, it helps to see the whole map. The italian pronominal verbs cluster into five recognisable families, each with its own clitic signature and its own typical meaning.

• The -si reflexives that change meaning: pentirsi (to repent), arrabbiarsi (to get angry), vergognarsi (to be ashamed), ribellarsi (to rebel), arrendersi (to surrender), imbattersi (to bump into), impadronirsi di (to take over). The si is mandatory and does not point back to a real reflexive action.
• The -sene family of departure and indifference: andarsene (to leave), starsene (to stay put), tornarsene (to head back), venirsene (to come along), restarsene (to remain), fregarsene (to not give a damn), infischiarsene (to not care, dated).
• The -la family with feminine clitic: farcela (to manage), smetterla (to stop it), cavarsela (to get by), sentirsela (to feel up to), prendersela (to take offence), godersela (to enjoy oneself). Covered in detail in the companion guide on italian la idioms.
• The -cela family with double clitics: avercela con qualcuno (to hold a grudge against someone), farcela (to manage, also lives here because of ce). Both combine ce (locative) with la.
• With ne alone: non poterne più (to have had enough), intendersene di (to be an expert in), volerne a qualcuno (to bear a grudge), averne abbastanza (to have had enough).

The boundaries between families of italian pronominal verbs are porous. Fregarsene sits in the -sene group by clitic shape, but its meaning is closer to the indifference verbs than to the departure ones. Farcela is a -la idiom but also a -cela one. What matters is not the taxonomy itself but the recognition that these verbs are units, not assemblies you can take apart.

The -sene family: andarsene, starsene, tornarsene

The most distinctively Italian of all the italian pronominal verbs are the -sene verbs of movement. They take a base verb of position or motion and add the double clitic se + ne. The result is a verb that focuses not on the action itself but on the speaker’s relationship to leaving, staying, or returning. Andare a casa is a neutral statement of destination; andarsene a casa puts the spotlight on the departure: I am out of here, I have had enough.

• Me ne vado dalla redazione alle sette in punto. I’m leaving the newsroom at seven sharp.
• Beatrice se ne va sempre per ultima dall’ufficio. Beatrice always leaves the office last.
• Ce ne andiamo prima che cominci il temporale. We’re leaving before the storm starts.
• Stefano se ne sta in silenzio quando il caporedattore alza la voce. Stefano stays quiet when the editor-in-chief raises his voice.
• Me ne torno a Trieste sabato mattina. I’m heading back to Trieste on Saturday morning.
• Vattene via, non ho tempo per le tue scuse. Get out of here, I don’t have time for your excuses.

The italian pronominal verbs include some that are worth a closer look, and starsene is a good example. Stare on its own means “to stay” or “to be” in a state. Starsene adds a flavour of stubbornness or quiet withdrawal: se ne sta in disparte means “she keeps to herself, off in a corner”. The se ne here translates roughly as “to oneself, away from the action”. You hear it in Italian phrases like hanno approfittato del suo starsene assorta sulla tela per squagliarsela, which means “they took advantage of her being absorbed in the canvas to slip away”.

The italian pronominal verbs in the -sene family always conjugate with essere as auxiliary in compound tenses, because the base verbs (andare, stare, tornare, venire, restare) all take essere on their own. The past participle agrees with the subject in gender and number: Beatrice se n’è andata, Stefano se n’è andato, Beatrice e Ilaria se ne sono andate. The ne does not trigger any extra agreement here, because in this construction ne is part of the lexical idiom, not a quantitative pronoun.

Fregarsene and infischiarsene: not caring

Two italian pronominal verbs cover the territory of “not caring”, and they pop up in conversation more often than English speakers expect. Fregarsene is the everyday workhorse; infischiarsene is its older, slightly literary cousin. Both take the structure fregarsene + di + something, and both follow the standard -sene conjugation pattern: me ne frego, te ne freghi, se ne frega, ce ne freghiamo, ve ne fregate, se ne fregano.

• Al direttore se ne frega dei nostri orari, basta che l’articolo esca per le otto. The director doesn’t give a damn about our hours, as long as the article goes out by eight.
• Beatrice se ne frega delle critiche e va avanti per la sua strada. Beatrice doesn’t care about criticism and keeps going her own way.
• Chi se ne frega se piove, andiamo lo stesso. Who cares if it rains, let’s go anyway.
• Non me ne frega niente di quello che dicono i lettori nei commenti. I don’t give a damn about what readers say in the comments.
• Stefano si infischia delle convenzioni e si presenta in ufficio in maglietta. Stefano ignores conventions and shows up at the office in a T-shirt.

Two register notes about these italian pronominal verbs. First, fregarsene is mildly vulgar in some contexts but accepted in everyday speech, friendly emails, journalism, even on television. It is not a swear word, but you would not use it in a formal letter to a client. Second, infischiarsene is on the way out: most under-forty speakers find it dated and reach instead for fregarsene, non importarsene, or just non mi interessa. The Treccani vocabolario records infischiarsene as standard but with a literary flavour, and the WordReference forum discussions confirm the perception that it sounds older than its neighbours.

A close cousin among the italian pronominal verbs is importarsene, built the same way (me ne importa, non me ne importa), meaning “to care about”. The negative non me ne importa niente is the polite alternative to non me ne frega niente in mixed company. Both italian pronominal verbs share the -sene shape, both take di + thing, both express degrees of caring or not caring, and both work in the same registers depending on which one you pick.

With ne alone: non poterne più, intendersene

A small but important group of italian pronominal verbs uses ne alone, without se. The two most common are non poterne più (to have had enough, to not be able to bear it any longer) and intendersene di (to be an expert in something, to know one’s way around a subject). Both are everyday spoken Italian, both attach ne as an integral part of the verb, and both follow their own quirks.

• Non ne posso più di queste correzioni infinite. I can’t take any more of these endless corrections.
• Beatrice non ne può più del rumore delle stampanti. Beatrice has had enough of the printer noise.
• Stefano se ne intende di calcio, ha seguito tre stagioni di Serie A. Stefano knows football well, he has followed three Serie A seasons.
• Mio nonno se ne intendeva di vini friulani, riconosceva il vitigno al primo sorso. My grandfather knew Friulian wines well, he could spot the grape at the first sip.
• Te ne intendi di fotografia? Devo scegliere un obiettivo nuovo. Do you know about photography? I have to pick a new lens.

Among the italian pronominal verbs, non poterne più is one of the cleanest examples of a fossilised ne: nobody can tell you what the ne refers to in modern Italian. Treccani notes that the phrase originally meant something like “I can have no more of it”, with ne as a partitive (“of it”), but the meaning has hardened into pure idiom. The verb works with all the standard potere persons: non ne posso più, non ne puoi più, non ne può più, non ne possiamo più, non ne potete più, non ne possono più. The ne always sits between the negative and the verb.

Among the same family of italian pronominal verbs, intendersene behaves slightly differently: it follows the reflexive pattern (me ne intendo, te ne intendi, se ne intende), and the topic of expertise comes after di. The flavour is “to be a competent connoisseur of”: you do not use intendersene for ordinary knowledge of a subject, but for the kind of taste-and-skill expertise you get from years of practice. A waiter who can recommend the right wine se ne intende; a passenger who knows the wine list by heart conosce il menu, which is not the same thing.

The -la and -cela families in one glance

The italian pronominal verbs that carry the feminine clitic la are covered in depth in the companion piece on italian la idioms, so this section is a quick orientation rather than a deep dive. The key insight: when la attaches to a verb in this idiomatic way, it stands for an unspecified una cosa (a thing, a situation), and the past participle in compound tenses agrees with la in the feminine singular, regardless of who is speaking.

• Ce l’ho fatta a chiudere l’articolo prima della deadline. I managed to close the article before the deadline.
• Beatrice se l’è cavata bene con quell’intervista difficile. Beatrice got through that difficult interview well.
• Smettila di guardare il telefono mentre ti parlo. Stop looking at your phone while I’m talking to you.
• Non te la prendere, era solo una battuta. Don’t take it the wrong way, it was just a joke.
• Stefano ce l’ha con il caporedattore da settimane. Stefano has been holding a grudge against the editor-in-chief for weeks.

The -cela sub-family of italian pronominal verbs combines two clitics: the locative ce (originally a marker of “there” or “to it”) and the feminine la. Two verbs dominate: farcela (“to manage”, “to succeed”) and avercela con qualcuno (“to hold a grudge against someone”). The double clitic stays together in every position: ce la faccio, ce l’ho fatta, ce la farò, fammi vedere se ce la fai. The ce never travels alone; the la never travels alone; they are welded together as cela.

Conjugation with double clitics

The mechanics of the double clitics in italian pronominal verbs follow a strict sequence. When a reflexive pronoun (mi, ti, si, ci, vi, si) meets the partitive ne, the reflexive shifts its vowel to e: mi + ne → me ne, ti + ne → te ne, si + ne → se ne, ci + ne → ce ne, vi + ne → ve ne. Same shift happens with la: mi + la → me la, and so on. The reason is purely phonetic, but the rule is mandatory and there are no exceptions.

Person	Andarsene	Fregarsene	Farcela
io	me ne vado	me ne frego	ce la faccio
tu	te ne vai	te ne freghi	ce la fai
lui / lei	se ne va	se ne frega	ce la fa
noi	ce ne andiamo	ce ne freghiamo	ce la facciamo
voi	ve ne andate	ve ne fregate	ce la fate
loro	se ne vanno	se ne fregano	ce la fanno

The italian pronominal verbs that use ce (like farcela, avercela) keep ce stable through all persons because ce is not a reflexive shifting with the subject: it is a fixed lexical clitic. So farcela is ce la faccio in the first person and ce la fanno in the third plural, and the ce never becomes me or se. This is one of the small details that catches learners: the se of se ne va shifts with the subject, but the ce of ce la fa never moves.

Past participle agreement

Compound tenses are where the italian pronominal verbs reveal their true colours. Two rules govern the past participle of italian pronominal verbs, depending on which family the verb belongs to.

Rule one, for the -sene italian pronominal verbs of movement. They take essere as auxiliary (because the base verb does) and the past participle agrees with the subject in gender and number. Beatrice se n’è andata, Stefano se n’è andato, le ragazze se ne sono andate, i ragazzi se ne sono andati. The ne sits with the auxiliary and does not affect the agreement of the participle.

Rule two, for the -la and -cela italian pronominal verbs. The past participle agrees with the feminine clitic la, not with the subject. So a man who succeeded says ce l’ho fatta; a woman who succeeded says ce l’ho fatta. Both forms are identical because the agreement tracks la, which is feminine singular. The same logic governs me la sono cavata, l’ho smessa, me la sono presa: feminine singular -a ending regardless of speaker.

• Stefano se n’è andato in fretta. Stefano left in a hurry. (agreement with subject)
• Beatrice se ne è andata senza salutare. Beatrice left without saying goodbye. (agreement with subject)
• Stefano ce l’ha fatta a finire entro le sette. Stefano managed to finish by seven. (agreement with la, even for masculine subject)
• Beatrice se l’è cavata con un’intervista difficile. Beatrice got by with a difficult interview. (agreement with la)
• Me ne sono fregata di quello che pensavano. I didn’t give a damn about what they thought. (fregarsene → essere, agreement with subject “io” feminine)

The last example shows that fregarsene, like other reflexive italian pronominal verbs, takes essere as auxiliary in compound tenses, and the past participle agrees with the subject. This is consistent across the whole -sene family because the construction is reflexive in form (se + ne). The italian pronominal verbs are remarkably consistent on this point: if the verb contains si/se, the auxiliary in compound tenses is essere and the participle agrees with the subject.

Position of clitics with modal verbs

One of the most useful pieces of grammar for the italian pronominal verbs is what happens when a modal verb meets a pronominal verb (dovere, potere, volere, sapere) takes them as infinitive. The clitic block has two legal positions, and the choice of position affects the auxiliary in compound tenses. The rule can be summarised for italian pronominal verbs in three lines.

• Option A: clitics climb to before the modal. Then the auxiliary follows the pronominal verb’s rule: essere for the -sene family, with subject agreement. Me ne sono dovuta andare presto = “I had to leave early”.
• Option B: clitics attach to the infinitive. Then the modal takes its default auxiliary avere. Ho dovuto andarmene presto = “I had to leave early”. Same meaning, different grammar.
• Forbidden: mixing the two patterns. You cannot say *me ne ho dovuto andare (clitics raised but auxiliary avere), nor *sono dovuta andarmene (clitics attached but auxiliary essere). Pick one pattern and commit to it.

• Stefano ha voluto andarsene prima della fine della riunione. Stefano wanted to leave before the end of the meeting. (clitics on infinitive, modal + avere)
• Stefano se n’è voluto andare prima della fine della riunione. Same meaning, clitics raised, modal + essere.
• Non posso fregarmene, è il mio lavoro. I can’t not care, it’s my job. (clitics on infinitive)
• Non me ne posso fregare, è il mio lavoro. Same meaning, clitics raised.
• Beatrice deve farcela da sola questa volta. Beatrice has to manage on her own this time.
• Beatrice ce la deve fare da sola questa volta. Same meaning, clitics raised.

Spoken Italian leans slightly toward Option A (clitics raised) for the -sene italian pronominal verbs, because it sounds cleaner and shorter. Written Italian distributes both options roughly evenly. The italian pronominal verbs reward consistency: pick one position per sentence and stick to it. A useful sanity check for the modal-plus-italian-pronominal-verbs pattern: if you find yourself saying *me ne ho voluto andare, you have crossed wires, and the me ne raised should bring essere with it.

The imperative: vattene, andiamocene, fregatene

The imperative of the italian pronominal verbs glues all the clitics onto the end of the pronominal verb, producing single-word commands that are some of the most distinctive sounds of spoken Italian. Vattene! (“Get out of here!”), andiamocene! (“Let’s get out of here!”), fregatene! (“Don’t give a damn!”). The whole structure is one phonetic word.

Verb	tu	noi	voi
andarsene	vattene!	andiamocene!	andatevene!
starsene	stattene!	stiamocene!	statevene!
fregarsene	fregatene!	freghiamocene!	fregatevene!
farcela	fatticela!	facciamocela!	fatecela!
smetterla	smettila!	smettiamola!	smettetela!
prendersela	prenditela!	prendiamocela!	prendetevela!

Two patterns to remember for the imperative of italian pronominal verbs. First, the tu form of irregular verbs like andare and stare doubles the initial consonant of the clitic: va’ + tene → vattene, sta’ + tene → stattene, fa’ + tene → fattene. Second, the negative imperative uses the infinitive plus the clitics attached: non andartene!, non te ne andare! (both correct). The noi and voi imperative simply attach all the clitics: andiamocene, andatevene. The italian pronominal verbs in the imperative can look intimidating in writing, but they collapse into a single quick word in speech.

Register and where to use them

The italian pronominal verbs are not all equally welcome in every context. A quick register map of the italian pronominal verbs helps you pick the right verb for the right situation.

• Universally fine: andarsene, starsene, tornarsene, farcela, cavarsela, sentirsela, intendersene. These work in speech, writing, journalism, formal emails, and even academic prose.
• Colloquial but accepted: smetterla, piantarla, prendersela, godersela, non poterne più. These belong in spoken Italian, friendly writing, conversational journalism. Avoid them in a thesis or a legal letter.
• Informal, mildly vulgar: fregarsene. Fine in everyday speech, friendly emails, even on TV news. Replace it with non importarsene or non interessarsi in a formal context.
• Dated or literary: infischiarsene. Most speakers under forty hear it as old-fashioned. Use fregarsene or non importare instead.
• Avoid in writing: heavy stacks of clitics like me ne sono fregata sound natural in speech but can read messy on the page. Many writers prefer the simpler non mi è importato in published prose.

A practical guideline for B1/B2 learners working through the italian pronominal verbs: master the universally fine group first, layer in the colloquial verbs as your spoken Italian develops, treat fregarsene with mild caution until you have a feel for the room, and quietly retire infischiarsene unless you want to sound like a 1950s newsreader.

Cheat sheet of the italian pronominal verbs

One table, the most useful italian pronominal verbs grouped by family. Keep it open while you build your next sentence.

Verb	Family	Meaning	Present (io)	Passato prossimo (io)
andarsene	-sene	to leave, clear off	me ne vado	me ne sono andato/a
starsene	-sene	to stay put, keep to oneself	me ne sto	me ne sono stato/a
tornarsene	-sene	to head back	me ne torno	me ne sono tornato/a
fregarsene	-sene	to not give a damn	me ne frego	me ne sono fregato/a
infischiarsene	-sene	to not care (dated)	me ne infischio	me ne sono infischiato/a
intendersene di	ne	to be expert in	me ne intendo	me ne sono inteso/a
non poterne più	ne	to have had enough	non ne posso più	non ne ho potuto più
farcela	-cela	to manage, succeed	ce la faccio	ce l’ho fatta
avercela con	-cela	to hold a grudge against	ce l’ho (con X)	ce l’ho avuta (con X)
cavarsela	-la	to get by, muddle through	me la cavo	me la sono cavata
smetterla	-la	to stop it	la smetto	l’ho smessa
prendersela	-la	to take offence	me la prendo	me la sono presa
godersela	-la	to enjoy oneself	me la godo	me la sono goduta
pentirsi	-si	to repent, regret	mi pento	mi sono pentito/a
arrabbiarsi	-si	to get angry	mi arrabbio	mi sono arrabbiato/a

Dialogue in a Trieste newsroom

The following dialogue gathers many of the most common italian pronominal verbs in their natural habitat: a small newsroom in Trieste at the end of a long working day. Stefano is the editor-in-chief, weary and short on patience; Beatrice is a junior reporter chasing one last quote before deadline. Listen for the way the italian pronominal verbs slide in and out of the conversation without anyone announcing them.

What to notice in the dialogue

• non ne posso più: Stefano expresses exhaustion with the ne-only family.
• ce ne andiamo, andiamocene, vattene, te ne vai: full deployment of andarsene across persons, including the imperative.
• se la prende, che se la prenda, ce l’ha con te: the -la family for taking offence and holding grudges.
• se ne frega: the everyday -sene verb of indifference, used here in third person about the director.
• te ne intendi, ce la faccio, me la cavo: three different families in one short exchange, all natural and unmarked.
• Stattene tranquilla: imperative tu of starsene with doubled tt at the boundary.

Mini-challenge

Test your understanding

Take the quiz below to test what you’ve learned about the italian pronominal verbs. The quiz drills the five families, the conjugation of italian pronominal verbs, the past participle agreement, the position of clitics with modals, and the imperative.

Frequently asked questions

These questions about the italian pronominal verbs come from real B1 and B2 learners untangling the italian pronominal verbs in real conversation. The institutional Treccani entry on verbi pronominali gives the full taxonomy used by Italian grammarians.

Related guides

• Italian La Idioms: Smetterla, Farcela, Cavarsela (B1): companion piece on the -la family.
• Italian Reflexive Verbs: True, Reciprocal, Pronominal (B1): broader reflexive landscape.
• Italian Ne Pronoun: Functions and Uses (A2): the partitive and quantitative ne.
• Italian Ci: C’è, Ci Vuole, Ci Penso (B1): the locative ci/ce in idiom.
• Treccani: voce pronominale: the Italian institutional dictionary entry.