Mi piace – Elementary Italian

I like

You have already met the word piacere used to greet people (see Unità 3.1). In this chapter, you are going to learn the verb piacere (to like) used to convey that someone likes something and has pleasure in doing something. Unlike Americans, Italian never used the verb amare (to love) to express feelings for things, but always the verb piacere. For example, the Italian equivalent of ‘I love pizza‘ can only be A me/Mi piace la pizza, never ~~Io amo la pizza~~ as deep as it is your ‘passion’ for it.

Listen to the audio file and find the corresponding characters below.

Then click here for the answers.

Click and listen to how to pronounce the following phrases. A chi piace? ‘Who likes….?’

	(a me) mi piace/piacciono = I like 1. Mi piace il film (I like the movie); 2. Mi piacciono i film italiani (I like Italian movies); 3. Mi piace guardare la TV (I like watching TV)
	(a te) ti piace/piacciono = you like 1. Ti piace questo libro? (Do you like this book?); 2. Ti piacciono i libri (You like books); 3. Ti piace comprare i libri (You like buying books)
	(a lui) gli piace/piacciono = he likes 1. Gli piace la pizza (He likes pizza); 2. Gli piacciono gli spaghetti (He likes spaghetti); 3. Gli piace mangiare (he likes eating)
	(a lei) le piace/piacciono = she likes 1. Le piace la scuola (She likes school); 2. Le piacciono le biblioteche (She likes libraries); 3. le piace studiare (She likes studying)
	(a Lei) Le piace/piacciono = you like (you formal) 1. Le piace la musica? (Do you [formal] like music?); 2. Le piacciono le canzoni americane (Do you [formal] like American songs?); 3. Le piace suonare il piano? (Do you [formal] like playing the piano?)
	(a noi) ci piace/piacciono = we like 1. Ci piace la carne (We like meat); 2. Ci piacciono le torte (We like cakes); 3. Ci piace cucinare (We like cooking)
	(a voi) vi piace/piacciono = you like (you all) 1. Vi piace la matematica? (Do you [all] like math?); 2. Vi piacciono le lingue straniere? (Do you [all] like foreign languages?); 3. Vi piace imparare italiano? (Do you [all] like learning Italian?)
	(a loro) gli piace/piacciono = they like 1. Gli piace l’opera (They like opera); 2. Gli piace l’arte (They like art), 3. Gli piace viaggiare (They like traveling)

GRAMMAR
The verb piacere

(part1),

(part 2)
The verb piacere (to like) is used in Italian to express the idea that someone likes something and has pleasure in doing something. The verb doesn’t function in the same way as the English equivalent, so do not try to translate it literally, but simply memorize the forms as they are¹. Piacere also works a little bit differently from most of other Italian verbs, so pay close attention. The verb is mostly used in the 3rd person singular (piace) or plural (piacciono) and the person who has the feeling is usually expressed by an indirect object pronoun: a me/mi (for I), a te/ti (for you), a lui/gli (for he), a lei/le (for she), a Lei/Le (for you formal)², a noi/ci (for we), a voi/vi (for you all), a loro/gli (for they)³. You may be asking yourself why in each case there are two options: piace and piacciono. Well, you use piace if whatever you like is singular and you use piacciono if whatever you like is plural. For example, you want to say in Italian “I like the book“. Now, “the book” is what “I like” and it is singular so you will choose “mi piace”: Mi piace il libro (I like the book). If instead, you want to say “I like books“, you will pick “mi piacciono” because “books” is plural: Mi piacciono i libri (I like books). If you want to say that you like to do something (to sing, to play, etc.), an infinitive verb must always follow the singular form verb piace: Ci piace nuotare (We like to swim/swimming), Ti piace mangiare gli spaghetti (You like to eat/eating spaghetti).The indirect object pronouns (they indicate the recipient of that action) have two forms:

the unstressed mi, ti, gli, le, Le (formal), ci, vi, and gli that are used alone,
the stressed me, te, lui, lei, Lei (formal), noi, voi, and loro that are preceded by the preposition a

Even if they are equivalent (a me=mi, a te=ti, a lui=gli, a lei= le, a Lei = Le, a noi = ci, a voi = vi, a loro = gli) Italians have a marked preference for the unstressed ones, especially in spoken language.

You can also use piacere with a person’s name or nouns. In this case you don’t need to write the pronouns mi, ti, etc. but place the preposition a in front of proper names (a Giovanna, a Mario, etc.) or the articulated prepositions al, alla, allo, etc. in front of all other nouns (al professore, alla studentessa, etc.): A Marco piace la pizza (Marco likes pizza), Al professore piacciono i film americani (Professor likes American movies) Agli italiani piace il caffè (Italians like coffee).
To make the statement negative (to say that you don’t like something, or you don’t like to do something) simply add non in front of the unstressed mi, ti, gli, etc. or directly in front of piace/piacciono when you use a + the stressed pronouns (a me, a te, a lui, etc.) names or nouns: Non mi piace la carne; A noi non piace viaggiare; A Francesco non piacciono gli spaghetti; Ai ragazzi non piace studiare.
To ask a question simply add a question mark at the end of the sentence and change the intonation of your voice: Ti piace studiare italiano? (Do you like to study Italian?). To ask what someone likes, simply add Che cosa… in front: Che cosa vi piace? (What do you like?), Che cosa ti piace mangiare? (What do you like to eat?).

The simple and articulated preposition A meaning “to whom”
You’ve learned about the preposition a indicating direction or position (see Unità 3.2). The same preposition is also used to indicate “to whom” the action expressed by a verb refers, to indicate the recipient of that action: Io parlo a Marco (I talk to Marco), Io porto questo libro a Matteo (I bring this book to Matteo). So it can be used with piacere as well, since the person who likes something is denoted by an indirect object (to whom): A Tommaso piace lo sport (Tommaso likes sport = Sport is pleasing to Tommaso), A Maria piacciono i libri (Maria likes books = Books are pleasing to Maria). If instead of a proper nouns (Tommaso, Maria, etc.) the preposition a is placed in front of a common noun (professore, studente, gatto, etc.) it combines with an article to form one word according to the following table:

	il	lo	l’	la	i	gli	le
a	al	allo	all’	alla	ai	agli	alle

Al [= a+il] professore piace insegnare italiano (Professor likes teaching Italian= Teaching Italian is pleasing to the professor), Agli [= a+gli] studenti americani piace l’Italia (American students like Italy = Italy is pleasing to American students).

Tasks

What do you like? What do you like to do? Answer the questions indicating five objects you like and five actions you like to do. Then ask your friend the same questions. Use Speech to Text to check if the computer recognizes your pronunciation.
Write ten sentences using piacere: five affirmative and five negative. Then check if there are mistakes in your text with Spell and Grammar Checker.

Practice

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