How to say ‘I like’ in Italian

What do Italians say when they like something? Well, there’s quite a range of options available. First and foremost, in Italian, ‘I like’ doesn’t translate literally. To make things easier for English-speaking students, it is best to think of it as in ‘X thing/person/situation is pleasing to me’.  

Additionally, to say ‘I like’ in Italian, you use the verb piacere (literally to like), but in its reflexive form.

So, get ready to cover it all: from the most useful piacere conjugations, passing by the use of reflexive pronouns, to alternative and colorful ways to express how you like your gelato or compliment a friend on their new haircut!

• To like vs. piacere
• I like reflexive pronouns
• How to conjugate the verb piacere
• 6 alternatives to say I like in Italian

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To like vs. piacere

To convey that you enjoyed something in Italian, you use the verb piacere (to like). However, where in English the subject of the sentence ‘I like reading books’ performs the action of ‘liking’ something; in Italian, it is the object of your liking that becomes the subject and the ‘liking’ action is rather directed to someone, instead of being the action in itself.

Let’s clarify this with a few examples:

• I like pizza – The subject ‘I’ does the ‘liking’ of an object. In this case, pizza.
• Mi piace la pizza – The pizza, in this case, is the subject and it is the pizza that is appealing to me

Or

• They like traveling – The subject ‘they’ do the ‘liking’ of the action of traveling.
• A loro/Gli piace viaggiare – Grammatically, viaggiare (to travel) is the subject, what is appealing to them.

I like reflexive pronouns

So learning how to say ‘I like’ in Italian entails a partial understanding of how the verb piacere works in its reflexive form. To start, let’s have a look at what the reflexive pronouns that accompany this verb are: 

English	Italian (atonic)	Italian (tonic)
To me	Mi	A me
To you	Ti	A te
To him/her/it	Gli (masc.) or le (fem.)	A lui/A lei
To us	Ci	A noi
To you	Vi	A voi
To them	Gli	A loro

Atonic and tonic indirect object pronouns do not differ in their function. Only, when using tonic ones, you will stress the emphasis on someone specific being the object rather than something/somebody else.

• Ci piacciono i tatuaggi che hai sul braccio – We like the tattoos on your arm
• A noi piacciono i tatuaggi che hai sul braccio (slight emphasis on the fact us, and only us like the tattoos).

How to say ‘I like’ in Italian

Here is a summary of how you would conjugate the verb piacere along with the right reflective pronouns.

English	Italian – Singular subject	Italian – Plural subject
I like	Mi piace	Mi piacciono
You like	Ti piace	Ti piacciono
He/she/it likes	Gli piace (masc.) Le piace (fem.)	Gli piacciono (masc.) Le piacciono (fem.)
We like	Ci piace	Ci piacciono
You like	Vi piace	Vi piacciono
They like	Gli piace	Gli piacciono

Notice that the verb takes only two forms – third-person singular and first-person plural. This is because of the reverse order of the Italian structure compared to the English one.

In Italian, the subject that appeals to one can only vary within those two quantities and persons. Hence, the verb will follow along with the same qualities the subject displays.

The pronoun before the verb indicates to whom something is appealing. 

Consider the examples below:

Mi piacciono i film dell’orrore – I like horror movies

Breakdown:

• ‘Horror movies’ are plural → this triggers the verb, in Italian, to be plural
• The subject in English ‘I’ turns into the indirect object → to whom are movies appealing? To me. ‘To me’ in Italian translates with ‘mi’ and precedes the verb piacere.

Or

Gli piace il colore rosa – They like the color pink

Breakdown:

• ‘The color pink’ is singular → this triggers the verb, in Italian, to be singular too
• The subject in English ‘they’ turns into the indirect object → to whom is the color pink appealing? To them. ‘To them’ in Italian translates with ‘gli’ and precedes the verb piacere.

Asking the question

It’s all good and well to know how to share your opinion on things you enjoy. But to keep the conversation going, you need to know how to throw some questions back to your counterpart.

In Italian, yes/no questions are usually marked by intonation rather than by structure. This means that “Do you like the song?” and “You like the song” maintain the same word order in Italian, and you differentiate the two sentences using your voice:

• Ti piace la canzone (affermative) – the pronunciation of the whole sentence remains quite flat
• Ti piace la canzone? (yes/no interrogative) – toward the end of the question, the intonation raises

If you wish to ask an open question, the structure changes too:

• Which song do you like?

Che canzone ti piace?

• Which colors do you like?

Quali colori ti piacciono? (sing)

or 

Quali colori vi piacciono? (plur)

The order, in this case, would be as follows: 

W word + subject (what is appealing to someone) + reflexive pronoun (who is the subject appealing to?) + verb declined according to the subject (singular or plural).

Explicit the subject

So far, we mainly used the verb piacere with pronouns, to elicit the indirect object to whom something is appealing. If you want to use a noun, instead, you will need to ensure to add the preposition ‘a’ (to) before.

• Chiara likes her pasta al dente
• A Chiara piace la pasta al dente

Building on everything we covered in this article, the example above should clarify even more how the Italian construction to say “I like” works. Pasta al dente is what is appealing to Chiara. 

The negative forms

All is well when you love something, but how do you express that that movie wasn’t as good or that dish didn’t meet your expectations?

In Italian to say you dislike something, you can simply add the negative particle “non” before the reflexive pronoun. 

• Non ci piace il vostro tono – We dont’t like your tone
• Non le piacciono le persone disordinate – She doesn’t like messy people

In case of an explicit subject, the negative particle “non” is added between the subject and the verb.

• A Luca non piace la Formula 1 – Luca doesn’t like Formula 1
• Al mio capo non piacciono i ritardi – My boss doesn’t like lateness

6 alternatives to say I like in Italian

We analyzed and broke down the formula to express what delights you in Italian. As all languages, though, Italian too loves to be creative. According to the context in which you find yourself or your confidence with the language, here are a few alternatives to the classical “Mi piace/piacciono…”:

Alternatives to mi piace	EN translation	Context
Non mi dispiace…	I don’t mind (something)…	You are not crazy about something, but you can work with it. Usually, you would expect a ‘but’ as a follow-up. Non mi è dispiaciuto l’ultimo album di Eros Ramazzotti.  I didn’t mind the last Eros Ramazzotti’s album
Non è male…	It’s not bad…	Similar to the example above, you would expect some sort of opinion or criticism after. Non è male, ma aggiungerei del sale. It’s not bad but I’d add a pinch of salt.
Che bello! Che figo!	How cool!	Both are expressions of excitement and enjoyment and they can also be used to compliment something/someone. Che figo/bello quel maglione! Your sweater is really cool! These alternatives would be mainly used in very informal contexts.
Lo/le/gli amo/adoro	To love or adore something/something	We go back using verbs and we move up a bit on the liking scale. In Italian too you can love (amo) or adore (adoro) something. Adoro imparare le lingue straniere! I adore learning foreign languages.
Vado pazzo/matto per… (sing)Vanno pazzi/matti per… (pl)	I am crazy for/I go nuts for..	Another informal way of expressing your unconditional love for something. So much so it makes you go crazy. Vanno pazzi per il tiramisù. They are crazy for tiramisù.
Mi fa/fanno morire.	Lit. They make me die…	Used in informal contexts, this is quite a usual way of declaring that something is so good for you that it makes you die! Il suo sorriso mi fa morire. Her smile makes me die.

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Like it or not

Ti è piaciuto questo articolo? Did you like this article? Or, to say it the Italian way: was this article appealing to you? One of the greatest achievements in learning a language is to exchange points of view and your take on an experience. Conversations become more animated and inspired and you could leverage this new expression as an icebreaker too.

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