Italian · CEFR Band 1 (A1) · Chapter 27
Mi piace!I like it!
Piacere works backwards: not «I love pizza» but «pizza is pleasing TO ME» — mi piace la pizza. The liked thing drives the verb: mi piace il calcio, mi piacciono i film. It is Italy's most famous construction, and CILS uses it in a verbatim exam question: «Ti piace quello che fai?». Mike uses it straight away at Marco's bar: mi piace il calcio, mi piacciono i film. Culture §6 closes the loop: calcio, il tifo, and free time.
Dialogue
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Ti piace il calcio?— Do you like soccer?
- MarcoMike, domenica c'è la partita al bar. Ti piace il calcio?Mike, on Sunday the match is on at the bar. Do you like soccer?
- MikeSì! Mi piace il calcio — e mi piace la pizza della partita!Yes! I like soccer — and I like the match-day pizza!
- MarcoE i film? Ti piacciono?And films? Do you like them?
- MikeMi piacciono i film… ma domenica mi piace il bar di Marco!I like films… but on Sunday I like Marco's bar!
Dialogue
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Il tempo libero— Free time
- SofiaGiulia, una domanda dell'esame: fai sport? Come passi il tempo libero?Giulia, an exam question: do you do sport? How do you spend your free time?
- GiuliaSì, faccio sport: il giro in bici il sabato. E mi piace molto la musica — amo i film italiani!Yes, I do sport: a bike ride on Saturdays. And I really like music — I love Italian films!
- SofiaE che cosa NON ti piace?And what do you NOT like?
- GiuliaNon mi piace il traffico di Roma. Ma la domenica… mi piacciono la partita e la pizza con gli amici!I don't like Rome's traffic. But on Sundays… I like the match and pizza with friends!
Vocabulary
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- piacere
verbto be pleasing — the backwards «like»: mi piace (one thing), mi piacciono (several)
- amare
verbto love (the direct one — amo i film; regular -are, chapter 18's machine)
- il calcio
n.m.football, soccer (giocare a calcio; la partita = the match)
- lo sport
n.m.sport (lo before s+consonant — chapter 8's rule; fare sport = to do sport; invariable: gli sport)
- il cinema
n.m.the movie theater (invariable — i cinema; andare al cinema, with chapter 25's fusion)
- il film
n.m.the film (invariable import: il film, i film — foreign words never change)
- la musica
n.f.music (MUsica — first-syllable stress, a P5 sdrucciola; ascoltare la musica)
- giocare
verbto play (a game/sport: giocare a calcio; gioco, giochi — the h-shield guards the hard c)
- ascoltare
verbto listen to (no preposition needed: ascolto la musica — the listening-to is built in)
- il tempo libero
phrasefree time (the CILS oral question: «Come passi il tempo libero?» — tempo here is time, not weather; weather-tempo is chapter 28)
- la bici
n.f.the bike (short for bicicletta, invariable like la foto; un giro in bici — the frozen in-family)
- l'esame
n.m.the exam (dare un esame = to take an exam — Italian «gives» exams; superare = to pass; the P9 s buzzing inside)
- il giro
n.m.the ride, the tour (il giro in bici = the bike ride)
Grammar
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Mi piace, mi piacciono — the backwards verb
Explanation
Piacere does not say «I love X» but «X is pleasing to me». The grammatical subject is the liked thing — and the verb agrees with IT: mi piace il caffè (one thing), mi piacciono i film (several). The one who likes stands in front as a short pronoun: MI piace (to me), TI piace (to you). The CILS exam question is exactly this: «Ti piace quello che fai?» — and the answer recycles the same machine: «Sì, mi piace molto». The negative parks non at the start: non mi piace. If your language makes the liker the subject («I love»), the wrong reflex is «io piaccio» — which exists in Italian but means «people find me likeable»! The quick test: find the liked thing, count it — one → piace, many → piacciono. For direct love there is amare (amo i film), which drives normally.
Examples
- Mi piace il caffè. Mi piacciono i cornetti.I like coffee. I like cornetti.
- Ti piace quello che fai? Sì, mi piace molto.Do you like what you do? Yes, I like it a lot.
- Non mi piace il traffico, ma mi piacciono le piazze.I don't like the traffic, but I like the piazzas.
- A Roberto piace molto lo stadio.Roberto really likes the stadium.
- Mi piace il calcio.I like soccer.
Culture
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Il calcio e il tempo liberoSoccer and free time
You have just learned to say mi piace — and in Italy one thing is liked more than almost anything: il calcio. But Italian free time is not only the match.
Il tifo — belonging to a team
Fare il tifo means supporting a team, and the tifoso does not choose one every year: the team is inherited, often from the family, and stays for life. The question «Di che squadra sei?» uses the same essere as «Di dove sei?» — a team is a belonging, like your city. In bars the match is a social rite: watched together, commented together.
Free time beyond the ball
The most common answers to the exam question «Come passi il tempo libero?» are also the truest: a bike ride, chapter 15's passeggiata, the movies, music, the gym. And next to the stadium sits the other half of the Sunday rite: lunch — you will meet it in chapter 32. A language note: accents and words for all of this vary by region — one country, many musics.
Now you have the right sentence for both halves of Sunday: mi piace la partita — and mi piacciono gli spaghetti.
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