ILGUR: Italian Language, Grammar and Usage Resource

The verb, piacere, means “to like” or “to be pleasing to”.

It has an indirect construction which can be confusing to many English speakers. In English, when we say we like something, we say:

I like the song.

or

I like swimming.

In Italian, the construction is different. With the verb, piacere, you construct your sentences in this way:

Mi piace la canzone.
I like the song.
literally: The song is pleasing to me

A helpful way to understand this better might be to read the Italian sentence backwards:

La canzone mi piace.
The song pleases (or is pleasing) to me.

When the thing/object that you like is in the plural, then the verb changes to agree:

Mi piacciono le mele.
I like apples.

As you can see in indirect constructions, the verb agrees in number with the thing that is pleasing, not with the person that it pleases. Remember, that the ‘thing’ being liked can be a noun, a number of nouns or an infinitive/infinitive phrase.

Below is a sample of conjugations using the verb, piacere:

Mi piace/piacciono
I like

Mi è/sono piaciuto/a/i/e…
I liked^*

Mi piaceva/piacevano
I used to like, I liked^*

Mi piacerà/piaceranno
I will like^*

….and in the present tense:

Ti piace/piacciono
You like

Gli piace/piacciono
He likes

Le piace/piacciono
She likes

Ci piace/piacciono
We like

Vi piace/piacciono
You like (plural)

Gli piace/piaccono
They like**

Remember: The verb agrees with the thing/person that is liked — not with the person/thing doing the liking. The thing/person that is liked is really the subject of the sentence and determines the choice of verb form:

Non le piacciamo.
She does not like us.

literally: We are not pleasing to her.

Non mi piacciono.
I do not like them.
literally: They are not pleasing to me.

Piaccio a Maria.
Mary likes me.
literally: I am pleasing to Maria.

In compound tenses, do not forget that the past participle must agree with the subject:

Mi è piaciuta la mela ieri sera.
I liked the apple last night.

What can be confusing is when a pronoun is not doing the liking, but a person, as seen above. In constructions like that, the preposition, a, plus the name is used:

A Giovanni piacciono gli spaghetti.
John likes spaghetti.

A Giovanni e Giovanna piace viaggiare.
John and Jane like to travel.

I tuoi amici piacciono ai miei cugini.
My cousins like your friends.

In Italian, there is no verb that means to dislike. To convey a dislike, use piacere in the negative:

Mi piacciono le mele.
I like apples.

Non mi piacciono le mele.
I dislike apples or I do not like apples.

Object pronoun + conjugation of piacere in the appropriate number + subject

Remember that the subject of the sentence is the thing/person being liked and not the person doing the liking.

**To distinguish between he or they, the use of the preposition a + stressed pronoun, loro, might help to avoid ambiguity of the object pronoun, gli:

A loro piace la canzone.
They like the song.
literally: To them the song is pleasing.