“Mipiace”iswhatyoucanreadontheItalianfacebook”like”button,butitdoesn’ttranslateintoastraight”Ilikeit”.LearntheItalianverbpiacere andothersimilarverbs.Listentothepodcast.
Mipiace,isoneofthefirstthingsyoulearninItalian.Andasithappensveryoften,whenyoustarttolearnaforeignlanguage,youjustmemorizesentencesbefore gettingintodetailsandstructures.Nowit’stimetohaveasecondlook.Let’sthinkaboutthissimplesentence:
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Mipiaceilgelato=(Ilgelatopiaceame)
NativeEnglishspeakerstranslateitinto”Ilikeice-cream”,andthemeaningisjustright.Butifyoureaditcarefully,theItaliansentenceisactually”ice-creamispleasingtome”,whereGelato isinfactthesubject,andnot Mi,whichinsteadisanindirectpronoun.
- ThestructureinEnglishis”AlikesB”
- ThestructureinItalianis”ToA,Bispleasing”
…where”toA” isanindirectpronounand”B”istherealsubject.
Difficult?No,justdifferent.Let’sfirstdefinealltheItalianindirectpronouns:
- tome->ame ->MI
- toyou ->ate ->TI
- tohim ->alui ->GLI
- toher ->alei ->LE
- tous ->anoi ->CI
- toyou ->avoi ->VI
- tothem ->aloro ->GLI
InItalian,conjugationschangewiththesubject.ItbecomesmoreclearthatBistherealsubjectwithpluralnouns.SoifIsay”Ilikespaghetti”, piacere changesbecausethesubjectspaghetti(loro-they)isplural:
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Mipiaccionogli spaghetti=(glispaghettipiaccionoame)
WeusetheItalianverbpiacere verymuchincombinationwithinfinitiveverbs,whenwelikeanaction, exactly as youdoinEnglishwiththegerund.Ifiwanttosay “Ilikeswimming“inItalian…
Swimmingispleasingtome.IfIwanttosaythatswimming”ispleasingtoyou”Igo”tipiacenuotare”,ispleasingtohim”glipiacenuotare”,ispleasingtous,”cipiacenuotare”andsoon.Ifyouthoughtthatthelatterperhapsshouldbe”cipiacciononuotare”or”cipiacciamonuotare”(I’mprettysureyouhaveconsideredthoseoptions…)becausenoi-us isplural,gobacktothebeginningofthispostandreaditagain…
Therearesomeotherimportantverbshavingthesamestructureofpiacere,notably:
interessare (tobeofinterest,tocareof), servire (toneed),sembrare (toseem),succedere (tohappen).Let’sseesomeexamplesandlistentothepodcast:
