The mindset shift
Piacere means to be pleasing, not to like. Mi piace la pizza is literally “Pizza is pleasing to me”. So the word order flips: the thing you like is the grammatical subject and decides the verb form, and you appear in front of it as an indirect object pronoun (mi, ti, gli …).
The pattern
piace or piacciono?
The verb form follows what is liked. One thing or an activity (infinitive) takes piace, several things take piacciono.
piace
Mi piace questa canzone.
I like this song.
Mi piace viaggiare.
I like travelling.
Cosa ti piace fare?
What do you like to do?
piacciono
Mi piacciono le vacanze.
I like holidays.
Mi piacciono questi film.
I like these films.
Who likes it?
The pronoun sits right before piace / piacciono and changes with the person, never with the thing that is liked.
The indirect object pronouns
| Person | Pronoun |
|---|---|
| to me | mi |
| to you | ti |
| to him | gli |
| to her | le |
| to us | ci |
| to you (pl.) | vi |
| to them | gli |
Ti piace la musica?
Do you like music?
Gli piace il calcio.
He likes football.
Ci piace molto l'Italia.
We like Italy a lot.
Naming the person with a
To name the person, use a + name instead of the pronoun. The verb still agrees with the thing that is liked, not with the person: A Maria piacciono i gatti.
A Marco piace questa canzone.
Marco likes this song.
A Maria piacciono i gatti.
Maria likes cats.
A mia madre piace cucinare.
My mother likes cooking.
