Did you know that mi piace doesn’t really mean “I like”? This mistranslation is one of the reasons that learning this expression can be so tricky in Italian. Once you clear it up and learn the true meaning, everything becomes easier. Learn how to use “piace” in episode #82 of 5 Minute Italian.
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Vocabulary: Using piace in Italian
- Hai molto in comune con la tua famiglia? = Do you have a lot in common with your family?
- Hai = you have
- Molto = a lot
- In comune = in common
- Con = with
- La tua famiglia = your family
- Dipende = It depends
- Per esempio = For example
- Ci piace cucinare = we like cooking
- Ci = to us
- Piace = it pleases
- Cucinare = cooking
- Ma a mia sorella piace fare i dolci = But my sister likes making desserts
- Ma = but
- a mia sorella = to my sister
- piace = pleases
- fare = making
- I dolci = the sweets
- Mentre a me piace fare la pasta = while I like making pasta
- Mentre = while
- A me = to me
- Piace = pleases
- Fare = making
- La pasta = the pasta
- Ci piacciono i film = we like films
- Ci = to us
- Piacciono = they please
- I film = the films
- Ci piace la pizza = We like the pizza (lit. to us, it pleases, the pizza)
- Ci piacciono le pizze = we like the pizzas (lit. to us, they please, the pizzas)
- A me piacciono i film fantascienza, e a mia sorella piacciono i film Disney = I like sci fi films, while my sister likes Disney films.
- A me = to me
- Piacciono = they please
- I film = the films
- Fantascienza = sci fi
- E = and
- A mia sorella = to my sister
- Piacciono = they please
- I film Disney = Disney films
- E a tua mamma? = And your mom? (lit. And to your mom?)
- Le piacciono i film classici, come cantando sotto la pioggia = She likes classic films, like singing in the rain.
- Le = to her
- Piacciono = they please
- I film = the films
- Classici = classic
- Come = like
- Cantando = singing
- Sotto = under
- La pioggia = the rain
- A lei = to her
- A me piace = I like it (lit. to me, it pleases: full, for emphasis)
- Mi piace = I like it (lit. to me, it pleases: short, most common)
- A te piace = You like it (lit. to you, it pleases: full, for emphasis)
- Ti piace = You like it (lit. to you, it pleases: short, most common)
- A lei piace = She likes it (lit. to her, it pleases: full, for emphasis)
- Le piace = She likes it (lit. to her, it pleases: short, most common)
- A lui piace = He likes it (lit. to him, it pleases: full, for emphasis)
- Gli piace = He likes it (lit. to him, it pleases: short, most common)
- A loro piace = They like it (lit. to them, it pleases: full, for emphasis)
- Gli piace = They like it (lit. to them, it pleases: short, most common)
- A noi piace = We like it (lit. to us, it pleases: full, for emphasis)
- Ci piace = We like it (lit. to us, it pleases: short, most common)
- A voi piace = You plural like it (lit. to you plural, it pleases: full, for emphasis)
- Vi piace = You plural like it (lit. to you plural, it pleases: short, most common)
- Con = with
- La tua famiglia = your family
Quiz: Using piace in Italian
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Transcript: Using piace in Italian
Please note, this is not a word for word transcript.
Katie: Ciao a tutti e benvenuti a 5 Minute Italian. I’m Katie.
Matteo: And I’m Matteo. Ciao!
K: In today’s lesson, we’re going to learn about a word that can be tricky for Italian learners because it works in a very different way compared to in English. That word is piace. One of the main reasons that it can be tricky is that piace doesn’t really mean what we think it does - it doesn’t mean like.
Once you know the real meaning, it all becomes a lot easier to understand and use correctly. You’ll find out more soon - let’s start by listening to the conversation.
K: Matteo, hai molto in comune con la tua famiglia?
M: Dipende. Per esempio, ci piace cucinare. Ma a mia sorella piace fare i dolci mentre a me piace fare la pasta. Ci piacciono i film, ma a me piacciono i film di fantascienza, e a mia sorella piacciono i film Disney.
K: E a tua mamma?
M: Le piacciono i film classici, come cantando sotto la pioggia.
K: Let’s take a closer look at the conversation. In the first line, I asked Matteo:
M: Hai molto in comune con la tua famiglia?
Hai = you have
Molto = a lot
In comune = in common
Con = with
La tua famiglia = your family
K: And the answer was:
M: Dipende
K: It depends
M: Per esempio
K: For example
M: Ci piace cucinare
K: In English, we’d say “we like to cook”. And here we have our first example of piace in Italian. Let’s break it down:
M:
Ci = to us
Piace = it pleases
Cucinare = cooking
K: So in Italian, we don’t say that we like cooking, it’s the cooking that pleases us. And this point is really important - even though we often learn it this way, piace doesn’t really mean “to like”. It means to please.
We don’t like the thing, but rather it’s the thing that pleases us. When you think that piacere means like, it can lead to common mistakes, for example, if you want to say “we like” you might naturally add the “we” ending and say *piacciamo, which means we please.
That doesn’t make sense in Italian, because it’s not us who is doing the pleasing, it’s the thing that pleases us. This means that we don’t want to say “we please” but we say “it pleases”.
From piacere we remove the -ere, and add the he/she/it ending, which is -e. Then we get piace.
So to say “we like” we literally say:
M: Ci piace
K: To us, it pleases. Ci is what’s known as an indirect object pronoun, and we’ll talk more about these at the end. But in the meantime, just know that this little word “ci” means “to us”, and Italians speak a little like yoda, so it comes at the beginning. Let’s continue with the conversation:
M: Ma a mia sorella piace fare i dolci
K: But my sister likes making desserts
M:
Ma = but
a mia sorella = to my sister
piace = pleases
fare = making
I dolci = the sweets
K: So here, to talk about Matteo’s sister liking something, we have the same structure. To my sister pleases. A mia sorella piace. We use this structure with A whenever we give someone’s name. So for example: A Matteo piace cucinare = to Matteo pleases cooking (Matteo likes cooking). We also use it when we want to give emphasis. It’s the full version. For example, Matteo said:
M: Mentre a me piace fare la pasta.
K: While I like making pasta. Literally:
M:
Mentre = while
A me = to me
Piace = pleases
Fare = making
La pasta = the pasta
K: It’s also correct to use “mi piace” and in fact, that’s the most common way to say I like. The little “mi” in “mi piace” is like a shortened version of “a me” (to me). But in this case, Matteo is making a contrast, saying: my sister likes making desserts and I like making pasta. He wants to add emphasis, so we get the full version in Italian, which is:
“To my sister pleases making sweets, to me pleases making pasta”
M: A mia sorella piace fare i dolci, a me piace fare la pasta.
K: Similarly, the little “ci” you heard earlier in ci piace (to us, it pleases - we like) is actually a shortened version of “a noi” (to us). We know, we know, it doesn’t sound even remotely similar, so you’ll have to forgive us for that one, but that’s just one of those little quirks of the Italian language. So to say “we like” in a normal way, without emphasis, we’d use the short “ci” as we did before.
M: Ci piace cucinare.
K: We like cooking. - To us, pleases cooking. But if you want to add emphasis, for example, if you were comparing and saying “we like cooking, and you like eating”. you could use the full version of to us and say: “a noi piace cucinare”. Let’s continue the conversation...
M: Ci piacciono i film
K: We like films.
M:
Ci = to us
Piacciono = they please
I film = the films
K: And here, we see another example of why it’s important to understand that in Italian, we don’t like the thing, but the thing pleases us. Because in this case, the thing that is pleasing - the films - is plural. We don’t say “it pleases”, but we say “they please” = piacciono. And if you want a quick review of why “they please” is piacciono, you can head to episode 44: the complete guide to the present tense.
But for now, the main thing is to understand that the word “piace” changes depending on whether the thing that pleases is singular or plural. So we get:
M: Ci piace la pizza
K: We like the pizza (lit. to us, it pleases, the pizza)
M: Ci piacciono le pizze
K: We like the pizzas (lit. to us, they please, the pizzas)
K: Next, you heard:
M: A me piacciono i film di fantascienza, e a mia sorella piacciono i film Disney.
A me = to me
Piacciono = they please
I film = the films
di fantascienza = sci fi
E = and
A mia sorella = to my sister
Piacciono = they please
I film Disney = Disney films
K: Finally, I asked:
M: E a tua mamma?
K: The reason we have this “a” is because we’re still using this structure. I’m literally saying “and to your mom?” Then Matteo said:
M: Le piacciono i film classici, come cantando sotto la pioggia.
K: She likes classic films, like singing in the rain. Literally:
M:
Le = to her
Piacciono = they please
I film = the films
Classici = classic
Come = like
Cantando = singing
Sotto = under
La pioggia = the rain
K: So here, le means “to her”. It’s the shortened version of “a Lei”, which is the literal translation of “to her”. If we wanted to give emphasis, we’d say:
M: A lei piacciono i film classici.
K: These little shortened versions, like “le” which is the short version of “a Lei” and “ci” which is the shortened version of “a noi” (to us) are called indirect objects.
These are important to know if you want to use the expression piace, because the literal structure is “to me, it pleases” “to you it pleases” “to her” it pleases etc. And unless we’re adding emphasis, we almost always use the shortened version, like ci and le.
So let’s learn these now. To say “I like” we literally say: “to me, it pleases”. The full version for emphasis is:
M: A me piace
K: And the shorter version, most common version is:
M: Mi piace.
K: To say “you like”, we literally say “to you, it pleases”. The full version is:
M: A te piace
K: But the short, most common version is:
M: Ti piace
K: To say “she likes”, we say “to her, it pleases”. The full version is:
M: A lei piace
K: And the short, most common way?
M: Le piace
K: Next, to say “he likes” we say “to him, it pleases”. The full version is:
M: A lui piace
K: And the short version is:
M: Gli piace
K: Spelt gli, gli piace. And this is a handy word, because it’s also the same as “to them”. To say “they like” we have “to them it pleases” the full version is:
M: A loro piace
K: But the short version is the same as to him:
M: Gli piace.
K: So the expression “gli piace” could mean “he likes” or “they like.” This is great because it’s one fewer thing to remember. It doesn’t cause confusion as it’s normally clear from the context. Next, to say “we like” we get “to us, it pleases”. The full version for emphasis is:
M: A noi piace
K: And the shorter, more common version:
M: Ci piace
K: Finally, Italian has a plural you for when you’re talking to two or more people. To say “you like it” in this case, the full version is “to you plural, it pleases”:
M: A voi piace
K: And voi here is the word that refers to you in the plural. And the shorter version is:
K: Vi piace.
If you’d like to go into more detail about these little words like mi, ti, ci, vi, le and gli, you can find out more about indirect objects by listening to episode 61: The ultimate guide to indirect object pronouns.
K: That’s it for today’s lesson, don’t worry if it feels a bit complicated at first, that’s because it is! It takes time and lots of repetition to start to feel natural. One thing that I find helps is everytime you come across an expression like this, go over the logic in your head and see if you can work it out. Who is the person? Is the object that’s pleasing singular or plural? And if after today’s lesson, you start seeing “piace” as “it pleases”, you’re already halfway there.
If you’d like to see all this stuff written down, on our website you’ll find the transcripts for this episode and other bonus materials like a quiz and flashcards to help you remember the phrases. Go to www.joyoflanguages.com/italianpodcast and scroll down to episode 82. You can also practice chatting Italian with us in our facebook group, you can find the link in the show notes.
See you next time, or as we say in Italian
Alla prossima!
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