{"id":1824,"date":"2012-04-27T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=1824"},"modified":"2012-05-03T13:58:03","modified_gmt":"2012-05-03T13:58:03","slug":"piacere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/piacere\/","title":{"rendered":"Piacere"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chatting with an English couple the other day about the strange convolutions of the Italian language, the conversation moved onto the famous topic of piacere<\/strong> (to please). As a visitor to Italia you can be sure that you will be asked frequently \u2018ti piace questo, ti piace quello?\u2019<\/strong> (do you like this, do you like that?) and so on. So, be prepared!<\/p>\n

The problem, of course, is conceptual. In English the idea of \u2018I like\u2019 is so ingrained that it\u2019s difficult to turn things around and get used to the idea the it\u2019s not me<\/span> that does the liking, but the object, or idea<\/span> that pleases me \u2026 che<\/strong> mi piace<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

And even when we\u2019ve got the hang of basic phrases such as mi piace l\u2019Italia<\/strong> (Italy pleases me \u2013 I like Italy<\/em>) there are all those other inconvenient complications: plurals, conditionals, present perfects \u2026 mamma mia, aiuto!<\/strong> How on earth does one say, for example \u201cI would have liked to have bought those shoes, but they were a bit too tight\u201d? Read on, and all will be revealed \u2026<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s begin with the plural. Remember: it\u2019s not you<\/span> that does the liking, it\u2019s the thing<\/span> that pleases you, therefore if there is more than one thing that pleases you it becomes \u2018they please me\u2019 = mi piacciono<\/strong>. For example: mi piacciono i gatti<\/strong> (cats please me – I like cats<\/em>), ma non mi piacciono i cani<\/strong> (but dogs don\u2019t please me – but I don\u2019t like dogs<\/em>). Embrace the concept of \u2018mi piace\u2019<\/strong> = it pleases me, and try to bypass the mental translation process, i.e. let go of the concept of \u2018I like\u2019. This is a very important stage in beginning to think<\/span> in a second language.<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s try the conditional: Remember, it\u2019s the thing<\/span> that pleases you, therefore when we use the conditional form we need to apply it to the thing<\/span>, such as \u2018a cup of coffee\u2019 for example: Mi piacerebbe<\/span> un buon caff\u00e8<\/strong> = a good cup of coffee would please me<\/span>. And in the plural mi piacerebbero<\/span> delle scarpe nuove<\/strong> = some new shoes would please me<\/span>. N.B. I\u2019m deliberately not translating these phrases as \u2018I like\u2019<\/em>, let\u2019s try and leave it out, it just gets in the way.<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s talk about things that pleased us using the present perfect: ti \u00e8 piaciuto il gelato?<\/strong> = did the ice cream please you? Plural: ti sono piaciute le lasagne?<\/strong> = did the lasagne please you?<\/p>\n

If we want to talk about what would have pleased<\/span> us we use the past conditional: mi sarebbe piaciuto andare a Piacenza<\/strong> = going to Piacenza would have pleased me, mi sarebbe piaciuto comprare quelle scarpe ma erano un po\u2019 troppo strette<\/strong> \u2013 it would have pleased me to buy those shoes but they were a bit too tight. Plural: mi sarebbero piaciute quelle scarpe<\/strong> ma erano troppo strette<\/strong> = those shoes would have pleased me but they were too tight.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you have any questions leave a comment below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chatting with an English couple the other day about the strange convolutions of the Italian language, the conversation moved onto the famous topic of piacere (to please). As a visitor to Italia you can be sure that you will be asked frequently \u2018ti piace questo, ti piace quello?\u2019 (do you like this, do you like…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[128825,128823,128824],"class_list":["post-1824","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-grammar","tag-how-to-say-i-like-in-italian","tag-piacere-to-like","tag-to-like-in-italian"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1824"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1826,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824\/revisions\/1826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}