It is not easy to learn HOW you can USE Italian verb PIACERE in the Italian Language but it just needs a little practice.
The verb Piacere corresponds to the verb “to like” in English, but it is used in a different way.
In Italian, the verb agrees with the object, which is the thing or the person that I liked
The subject of the verb/sentence is the thing or person one likes; the person who likes something is denoted by an indirect object pronoun.
The people below are talking about what they like. Can you figure out when to use piace and when to use piacciono?
| Mi piace lo sport. | I like the sport. [lit. sport is pleasing to me] |
| Ti piace ballare? | Do you like dancing? [lit. is dancing pleasing to you?] |
| Mi piacciono i gatti. | I like cats. [lit. cats are pleasing to me] |
| Ci piace il cioccolato | We like chocolate |
Piacere is an irregular verb mostly used in the third person singular (piace) and plural (piacciono).
As can be seen in the examples, “piace“ is used if the thing that one likes is a singular noun or pronoun, or the infinitive of a verb; “piacciono” is used if the things that one likes are a plural noun or pronoun.
You may like to watch this video:
STRUCTURE OF A PHRASE WITH PIACERE
EXAMPLE: I like the cake
| English | Italian |
|---|---|
| I like the cake | Mi piace la torta |
| I ➮ Subject like ➮Verb the cake ➮ Direct Object | the cake (la torta) ➮ Subject like (piace) ➮ Verb to me (a me/mi) ➮ Indirect Object |
ITALIAN WORD ORDER WITH VERB PIACERE
| INDIRECT OBJECT | MI |
| VERB | PIACE |
| SUBJECT | LA TORTA |
HOW TO TURN INTO A NEGATIVE PHRASE
| NEGATION | NON |
| INDIRECT OBJECT | MI |
| VERB | PIACE |
| SUBJECT | LA TORTA |
The verb “PIACERE ” with Singular noun or pronoun
| SINGULAR NOUNS | |||
| mi (to me) | piace | la mia città. | I like my hometown. |
| ti (to you) | piace | questo/questa. | You like this (one). |
| gli/le (to him/her) | piace | il calcio. | He/she likes football. |
| ci (to us) | piace | la musica rock. | We like rock music. |
| vi (to you) | piace | il tennis. | You like tennis. |
| gli (to them) | piace | quello/quella. | They like that one. |
Verb “PIACERE” with INFINITIVE Verbs
| INFINITIVE VERB | |||
| mi (to me) | piace | leggere | I like to read/reading. |
| ti (to you) | piace | andare in bici. | You like to cycle/cycling. |
| gli/le (to him/her) | piace | sciare. | He/she likes to ski/skiing. |
| ci (to us) | piace | guardare la tv. | We like to watch/watching TV. |
| vi (to you) | piace | dormire | You like to sleep/sleeping. |
| gli (to them) | piace | ballare. | They like to dance/dancing. |
The verb “PIACERE” with Plural noun or pronoun
| PLURAL NOUNS | |||
| mi (to me) | piacciono | questi/queste. | I like these. |
| ti (to you) | piacciono | le ciliegie. | You like cherries. |
| gli/le (to him/her) | piacciono | i romanzi. | He/she likes novels. |
| ci (to us) | piacciono | quelli/quelle. | We like those. |
| vi (to you) | piacciono | gli scherzi. | You like practical jokes. |
| gli (to them) | piacciono | le auto veloci. | They like fast cars. |
The negative form (formed by putting non before the pronoun)
| Non mi piace la pizza | I don’t like pizza. |
| Non ti piace questo/questa? | Don’t you like this (one)? |
| Non le piace sciare. | She doesn’t like skiing. |
| Non ci piacciono i videogiochi. | We don’t like video games. |
Let’s put your Italian knowledge to the test!
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OmeedMamund
That’s nice exercise
Anna Italian Tutor
thanks, glad to be helpful
Frank
That’s extremely helpful. I didn’t have a problem learning “Mi piace” empirically but I just didn’t get why until I saw your suggestion to view it as “is pleasing to me”. Now it makes sense.
Italian Tutor for Easitalian
Thanks
Anonymous
So when you add a verb after piace/piacciono for example when saying i like watching birds or watching sports which one would you use, I think it’s piacciono because both subjects are plural, so my question is adding a verb in front of a piace doesn’t change the rule addressed in the article? I found this article really helpful and accessible.
Italian Tutor for Easitalian
When you have a verb after verb piacere you use piace – mi piace guardare gli uccelli, mi piace guardare lo sport. If after verb piacere you have a noun (like bird or sport) you need piace with uccello (bird – singular) and piacciono with uccelli (birds – plural). Glad you liked my article. Feel free to ask if you have any doubt.
Nicole Varanavage
I know i spelled a few words incorrectly in the first quiz, and used the wrong form of piacere in one question when i reviewed it, but the quiz marked all of my right answers as wrong, so instead of 7 out of 8, i was given a score of 1 out of 8. In the explanations it would tell me that the correct form of the verb to use was the same one in my answer, so i was really confused……the one it marked correct was Do you like fruit…..so is the quiz marking things wrong based on the verb or the whole response?
Italian Tutor for Easitalian
thanks for the reporting!! I checked all the answers and everything works fine.