G3.2 – Piacere / To like
G3.2 – Il verbo PIACERE – The verb TO LIKE
The verb PIACERE is used in Italian to express likes and dislikes; so, Piacere the equivalent of the English verb to like but the two verbs have a very different construction in the languages.
The Italian structure can be translated in English as follows: something is pleasing to me/to you as for example: Mi piace il gelato (I like ice cream).
Note that Piacere is used mostly in the following two forms:
- the third singular person (piace) with singular nouns or infinitive of the verb.
- Mi piace la pizza –> I like pizza
- Mi piace ballare –> I like dancing (ballare is the infinitive of the verb)
- Mi piace Damiano –> I like Damiano
- the third plural person (piacciono) with a plural noun
- Mi piacciono le scarpe rosse –> I like the red shoes
- Ti piacciono i Beatles –> You like the Beatles
As you can see from the examples above in Italian the subject of the verb is the thing or person that is liked. Therefore, the verb has to agree with what is liked.
A handy way to remember this is to think as follows: Ice cream is pleasing to me/to you. In this construction, ‘ice cream’ is the subject and the thing that is liked, and ‘me’ / ‘you’ is the person who likes it.
The same rules apply in the negative form. The negative NON goes before the pronoun.
- Non mi piace ballare. –> I don’t like dancing.
- Non mi piace l’estate. –> I don’t like summer.
- Non mi piacciono le fragole. –> I don’t like strawberries.
- Non ti piace correre. –> You don’t like running.
- Non ti piace la lezione di matematica. –> You don’t like math class.
- Non ti piacciono le macchine veloci. –> You don’t like fast cars.
And in the interrogative form:
- Ti piace giocare a calcio? -> Do you like playing soccer?
- Ti piacciono gli spaghetti? -> Do you like spaghetti?
NOTE: In this course we will use the verb piacere only with the pronouns MI (to me) and TI (to you). A more extensive explanation and use of the verb “Piacere” will be introduced in ITL611 and ITL320.
