Frasi semplici in italiano con immagini

What do “egli” and “ella” mean in Italian?

Egli means “he” and ella means “she,” but you will mostly meet them in older books, formal writing, and careful texts. In normal conversation, Italians say lui for “he” and lei for “she.” So a learner can recognize egli and ella when reading, while sticking to lui and lei when speaking. Ella sounds especially old-fashioned today; egli still shows up in formal or written Italian.

The clip is a reading of the old textbook “Italian Through Pictures,” which uses this bookish register: “Egli è là. Ella è qui.” (“He is there. She is here.”) In everyday speech that would be “Lui è là. Lei è qui.” The same lesson also runs through the plural forms essi/esse (“they”) and the object-style esso/essa (“it”), which are likewise more written than spoken. Egli and ella both trace back to Latin: egli from ille and ella from illa (that man / that woman). Modern lui and lei come from related Latin forms too (illui, illaei), which is why the everyday words eventually pushed the older ones into formal and literary corners. Useful pairing to remember: egli ↔ lui, ella ↔ lei.