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How to say God helps those who help themselves in Italian?

June 13, 2025 By Larry Aiello

Here is an Italian proverb that shows us how to say God helps those who help themselves in Italian?

Aiutati che Dio ti aiuta

The literal word-for-word translation doesn’t translate nicely, but it would be something like:  “help yourself (so) that God will help you”.

The Italian word “che” can mean that or which.

This is a saying about personal power and empowerment.  It also has to do with finding your own happiness, which comes from within. And have confidence in relying on yourself for whatever you want to accomplish in life.  We have so much power and ability that many of us waste.  They say we only tap into approximately 10% of the power of our own mind.  And I think that is accurate.

The old fable about the grasshopper and the turtle is also one that highlights the importance of not procrastinating.  The grasshopper played around all summer while the turtle was working.  In the winter when food was scarce the grasshopper was starving while the turtle was able to hibernate. The turtle is a perfect example of someone who helped themselves.

Italian Verb

The Italian verb in this example is “aiutare” which means to help.

Aiutare conjugation present tense:

io aiuto

tu aiuti

lui / lei (Lei) aiuta

noi aiutiamo

voi aiutate

loro aiutano

Reflexive Pronouns in Italian

In this example, we have the use of a reflexive pronoun that is added to the verb base in auitare + ti.  The result is aiutati to mean help yourself.

The reflexives in Italian are:

io (I) – mi (myself)

tu (you) – ti (you or yourself) – this is what’s used in our Italian proverb (see image below)

lui/lei/Lei (he, she, it, you formal – si (himself, herself, itself, yourself formal)

noi (we) – ci (us or ourselves)

voi (you all, you plural) – vi (yourselves)

loro (they) – si (themselves)

 

The image below is a close approximation of how to say God helps those who help themselves in Italian.

Here is a link to my course if you want to learn Italian through video course.

Help Yourself and God will Help You!
Aiutati che Dio Ti Aiuta – Help Yourself and God will Help You

Filed Under: Italian Proverbs Tagged With: Aiutare in Italian, aiutati che dio ti aiuta, God helps those who help themselves, italian proverb, reflexive pronouns in italian, the Italian verb to help

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