In English, the subject is the person who likes something, and the object is the thing that is liked. But in Italian, it is the opposite: the thing that is liked becomes the subject of the sentence, and the person who likes it is the indirect object—the one to whom the thing is pleasing.
That is because piacere literally means to be pleasing. So instead of saying "I like the pizza," you’re really saying "The pizza is pleasing to me."
Here is how that looks in practice:
-Mi piace la pizza. --> The pizza (subject) is pleasing to me (indirect object).
-Ti piace il gelato? --> Is the ice cream (subject) pleasing to you (indirect object)?
Understanding who is doing what in the sentence helps you get the grammar right, and once you get the hang of it, you will see that this structure is used with other Italian verbs too, like mancare (to miss) and servire (to be needed).
Today, we will explore:
1. How piacere works and why it is different from English
2. How it changes with singular and plural objects
3. How to use piacere in different tenses and with pronouns
Are you ready? Let’s dive in!
1. How piacere works and why it is different from English
The structure of piacere is: [Indirect object] + piacere + [subject], e.g.:
-Mi piace la pizza. --> The pizza pleases me. (I like pizza.)
-Ti piace il gelato? --> Do you like ice cream?
-A Maria piace il vino rosso. --> Maria likes red wine.
Here, mi and ti are indirect object pronouns:
-mi = to me
-ti = to you
-gli = to him
-le = to her
-ci = to us
-vi = to you (plural)
-gli = to them (masculine or feminine)
2. How it changes with singular and plural objects
The verb piacere changes its form to agree in number with the thing or things being liked, rather than with the person who likes them. In other words, if what is liked is a singular noun, you use piace, and if what is liked is a plural noun, you use piacciono. The verb always matches the grammatical subject, which, in this case, is the item or items that are considered pleasing.
e.g.:
-Mi piace la musica classica. --> I like classical music (music is singular, so we say mi piace).
-Mi piacciono i film italiani. --> I like Italian movies (movies is plural, so we say mi piacciono).
3. How to use piacere in different tenses and with pronouns
Like all verbs, piacere can be used in different tenses. In the passato prossimo, it uses essere as the auxiliary verb, and it must agree with the subject in gender and number. But here is the tricky part: In the passato prossimo, piacere always uses essere as the auxiliary verb (not avere like many other verbs). And because it uses essere, the past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject of the sentence, that is, with the thing that was liked. e.g.:
-Singular masculine subject
Mi è piaciuto il film. --> I liked the movie.
(Film is masculine and singular, so we use piaciuto.)
-Singular feminine subject
Ti è piaciuta la canzone? --> Did you like the song?
(Canzone is feminine and singular, so we use piaciuta.)
-Plural masculine subject
Ci sono piaciuti i libri. --> We liked the books.
(Libri is masculine and plural, so we use piaciuti.)
-Plural feminine subject
Vi sono piaciute le vacanze? --> Did you all like the holidays?
(Vacanze is feminine and plural, so we use piaciute.)
As we are nearing the end of this article, I would like to leave you with a quick tip before wrapping up:
The verb piacere often appears in impersonal constructions, especially when talking about general preferences or abstract concepts.
e.g.:
-Ti piace viaggiare? --> Do you like traveling?
-Mi piace studiare l’italiano. --> I like studying Italian.
-Non ci è piaciuto aspettare così tanto. --> We didn’t like having to wait so long. In these cases, the subject is an entire action (viaggiare, studiare, aspettare), not a tangible noun. However, the grammar rules still apply: the verb agrees with the subject, in this case, the infinitive verb (which is treated as singular), and the person reacting to it is still the indirect object.
Recognizing these patterns will help you not only with piacere, but with many everyday expressions in Italian.
That is all for today’s lesson!
Understanding piacere is key to sounding more natural in Italian. It may seem tricky at first, but with practice, this verb will become second nature. If you want to go even further, try applying this same logic to verbs like mancare, servire, and interessare, which follow a similar structure. Of course, if you have any questions or other topics you would like me to cover, let me know in the comments below.
Thank you for reading this article!
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Germana
