Transitive verbs take direct objects—which can be direct object pronouns (i pronomi diretti). These pronouns are the person or thing affected by the action of the transitive verb and answer the question what? or whom? For example:

She invites the girls. Whom does she invite? The girls.

I read the book. What do I read? The book.

The nouns "girls" and "book" are direct objects. Direct object pronouns replace direct object nouns:

She invites the girls. She invites them.

I read the book. I read it.

The forms of the Italian direct object pronouns appear in the following table.

In Italian, a direct object pronoun is placed immediately before a conjugated verb:

Se vediamo i ragazzi, li invitiamo. (If we see the boys, well invite them.)

Compra la frutta e la mangia. (He buys the fruit and eats it.)

The only exception to that is when a sentence contains an infinitive. In this case, the object pronoun is attached to the end of it (note that the final -e of the infinitive is 0dropped):