Using PIACERE in Italian is always confusing but it gets even more confusing when using it to express the idea of you liking someone. Read this article to understand the logic behind this tricky Italian verb!
I am sure you know that “I like” is “Mi piace”, but do you know how to use PIACERE with people? “I like Italy” is “Mi piace l’Italia”, but what about “I like you”, “She likes me”, “We like you”, “They like us”. Well, it might seem a bit confusing at first, but I am going to walk you through the logic behind this verb so that you will know how to use it in conversation!
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Before reading this article, make sure you've read my previous blog post on the verb PIACERE. By knowing the basics of this verb, it will be easier for you to understand how these rules work.
Remember that the verb PIACERE works the other way around in Italian. We don’t say “I like something” but “something is pleasing to me”. Therefore we will have to figure out a way to say that “someone is pleasing to me/you/her” and so on? How do we do that?
First of all, you need to know indirect object pronouns:
Mi → to me
Ti → to you
Gli → to him
Le → to her
Ci → to us
Vi → to you guys
Gli/Loro → to them
You can also review direct and indirect object pronouns with this blog post.
Second, we need to conjugate the verb piacere in all its forms:
(io) piaccio
(tu) piaci
(lui/lei) piace
(noi) piacciamo
(voi) piacete
(loro) piacciono
IMPORTANT: (io) piaccio does NOT mean I like! Keep this in mind! You know that I like is “mi piace”.
Once we’ve reviewed indirect object pronouns and the conjugation of the verb piacere let’s take a simple English sentence and let’s try to translate it:
I like you
We are not actually saying I like you but we’re saying you are pleasing to me, right? So what you’ll have to do is translate this bit by bit. Follow these easy steps:
Start from the end of the sentence and translate the indirect object pronoun to me. If you look at the chart above, you should know that to me is mi. Keep this one in mind.
Now we want to say you are pleasing to me, so we need to look for the YOU form of the verb piacere that is going to be piaci.
Let's write down the whole thing
Mi piaci = I like you!
Done! As you can see, it's not that hard, it just needs some getting used to! Let's take a look at these other examples:
We like you → You are pleasing to us → Ci piaci
You like us → We are pleasing to you → Ti piacciamo
They like me → I am pleasing to them → Gli piaccio
We like her → She is pleasing to us → Ci piace
She likes you (p.) → You (p.) are pleasing to her → Le piacete
I hope that makes sense!
If you have any questions about this topic, send me a message in the contact section of my website or on Instagram!
A presto,
Stefano
Do you want to take your Italian to the next level? Check out my Online Italian course for beginners "Be Italiano" and start learning today to become a real Italiano, like me!