Piace

Piace is a form of the Italian verb piacere, meaning “to please” or “to be pleasing.” In everyday usage it is most often understood as “to like,” in the sense that something pleases someone. The base verb piacere comes from Latin placere.

Usage and grammar

The most common construction uses an indirect object pronoun to indicate who is pleased, and the thing that is pleasing acts as the subject of the verb. The standard present tense forms for the thing that pleases are piacere with singular subjects (piace) and plural subjects (piacciono). The pronouns mi, ti, gli, le, ci, vi, or loro indicate who experiences the pleasure, for example: Mi piace il gelato (I like ice cream) or Mi piacciono i gelati (I like ice creams). Other pronouns include ci piace, vi piace, Le piace, etc., depending on the person and number. Infinitives and other verb forms can also be the subject: Mi piace leggere, Mi piace correre.

Negation and questions are formed with non and question words as with other verbs: Non mi piace il rumore; Ti piace questa musica? For past reference, the passato prossimo uses essere: È piaciuto/a? or Sono piaciuti/e? as in Non mi è piaciuto quel film (I didn’t like that film).

Notes

Piacere is the opposite of typical English word order for “to like” because the thing being liked is the grammatical subject of the sentence, while the person who likes is expressed by the indirect object pronoun. The form piaci or piacciono exists in other persons, but in modern speech the mi, ti, gli/le, ci, vi, loro constructions with piace or piacciono are standard for present tense.