The verb “piacere” (to like) in Italian has an unusual construction, in the sense that the subject of the action is reversed.
The meaning of “piacere” is best thought of as “to please, to be pleasing to” rather than ‘to like’.
In English you ‘like’ something or doing something. In Italian it’s the object or activity that ‘pleases’ you.
To construct this grammatically, we need to use indirect pronouns. For example:
Mi piace la pizza (‘I like pizza’, but literally: ‘Pizza pleases me.’)
Here’s the same example sentence conjugated for the different subjects:
Mi piace la pizza. (‘Pizza pleases me.’)
Ti piace la pizza. (‘Pizza pleases you.’)
Gli piace la pasta. (‘Pizza pleases him.’)
Le piace la pizza. (‘Pizza pleases her.’)
Ci piace la pizza. (‘Pizza pleases us.’)
Vi piace la pizza. (‘Pizza pleases you.’)
Gli piace la pizza. (‘Pizza pleases them.’)
A further complication is that, if the subject of the sentence is plural, you need to remember to change the verb from the third person singular (‘piace’) to the third person plural (‘piacciono’).
For example:
Mi piacciono i biscotti. (‘Biscuits please me.’)
The negative is formed by adding ‘non’. For example:
Non gli piace il cioccolato. (‘Chocolate doesn’t please him.’)
Non ci piacciono le lasagne. (‘Lasagnes don’t please us.’)
The verb ‘piacere’ can also be followed by another verb, which has to be in the infinitive form. For example:
Mi piace leggere. (‘Reading pleases me.’)
Non gli piace studiare. (‘Studying doesn’t please him.’)
Ci piace mangiare al ristorante. (‘Eating at the restaurant pleases us.’)
