Italiano — Piacere and similar verbs
In Italian you do not say "I like the pizza" the way English does: the thing liked is the grammatical subject and the person who likes it appears as an indirect object. Mi piace la pizza literally means "the pizza is pleasing to me".
How it works
The verb agrees with the thing liked, not with the person. Use piace before a singular noun or an infinitive (mi piace il caffè, mi piace leggere) and piacciono before a plural (mi piacciono i gatti). The person is marked by an indirect-object pronoun (mi, ti, gli, le, ci, vi, gli) or by a + noun (a Marco piace il mare).
Examples
| Italian | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Mi piace il caffè. | I like coffee. (singular subject → piace) |
| Ti piacciono i libri gialli. | You like crime novels. (plural subject → piacciono) |
| Mi manca la mia famiglia. | I miss my family. (mancare = to be lacking / be missed) |
| Mi servono due uova. | I need two eggs. (servire = to be needed) |
| Ci basta un'ora. | An hour is enough for us. (bastare = to suffice) |
| Le interessa l'arte. | She is interested in art. (interessare = to interest) |
Good to know
In compound tenses these verbs take essere, so the past participle agrees with the subject (the thing): mi è piaciuta la festa, mi sono piaciuti i film. Do not say io piaccio la pizza — that would mean "I am pleasing". With mancare, watch the reversal: mi manchi means "I miss you" (you are the subject), not "you miss me".