I’ve lost count of the number of times my dear English language students have commented on how odd the English language seems when it’s compared to Italian.
I guess this is a normal reaction.
When confronted with a new language, some learners tend to think that the order of the words is more or less the same, it’s just the spelling and the sounds which are different. Such hopeful people soon discover that things are rarely this simple. Translating literally usually produces a kind of linguistic minestrone, which can be virtually unintelligible.
Literally Incomprehensible
Italian is not too bad when translated word by word, but try putting Japanese directly into English and you will soon discover from the resulting mess that literal translation produces results which are literally incomprehensible.
As I remarked before, sometimes Italian is not too bad when translated literally, aside, that is, from that insidious everyday verb – piacere – which means ‘to like’.
Piacere is dastardly verb which twists and distorts the (my) Anglo-Saxon mindset – much like all those exceedingly odd phrasal verbs which leave many Italians wondering whether they will ever manage to get by (!) in English. The Italian verb piacere probably has the same effect on anyone trying to get to grips with Italian.
Easy English, Odd Italian
In English, saying, for example ‘I like wine‘ is pretty easy. Not in Italian, oh no.
In Italian it’s ‘mi piace il vino‘. Try translating that literally, word for word, and the result is messy to say the least. The literal translation is like this: ‘me it likes the wine‘. You might come away wondering whether it means you like wine or wine likes you.
In practice, though, using the Italian verb piacere is not too difficult.
To say you like something, you just say ‘mi piace’ and add a singular definite article of the appropriate gender (‘il’ for wine – yes, this can be fiddly), along with what you like – vino. Easy, really – ‘mi piace il vino‘.
If what you like is plural, such as when you are expressing general ‘likes’, you say ‘mi piacciono’ plus the things you like, along with a plural definite article. An example: ‘I like trains‘, in Italian is: ‘mi piacciono i treni‘.
Carry out a literal execution of that, and you have: ‘Me they like the trains‘ – which sounds a little like something Tarzan might have uttered in a film: ‘me like trains, Jane’. Drop the ‘they’ and the ‘the’ and you can grasp the sense.
Mind Boggle Mode
Now, let’s move into super mind boggle mode and attempt to put this admittedly uncommon sentence, which foxed me years ago, into Italian:
- I like the sun, but the sun doesn’t like me.
In Italian, this is:
- mi piace il sole ma al sole non piaccio.
Literal translation, I think:
- me it likes the sun but to the sun do not I like
Arrgh! What a mess for my Anglo-Saxon programmed grey matter! “Aiuto!” – which means ‘help!’ in Italian.
And just why am I twittering on about this everyday Italian verb? Because even now after umpteen years in Italy, this innocuous everyday Italian verb still causes me headaches! And to this day I go around annoying my Italian friends whining, from time to time, about this Italian verb and its illogical structure. No, I don’t like piacere!
Avoidance Manoeuvres
I tend to avoid using the verb piacere if I have to say anything moderately complex and attempt to use ‘normal’ alternatives like ‘amare’ – to love, or ‘odiare’ to hate – both of these Italian verbs function in much the same way as ‘like’ in English. Needless to say, the thoughts I attempt to transmogrify into spoken Italian words end up not dissimilar to minestrone soup. Sometimes, as an alternative, I can get away with uttering: ‘non è un gran che’ – ‘it’s not great’.
Piacere also has a sibling (evil twin, more like) in the form of mancare – to miss (something or somebody, but not trains, planes etc – (you literally lose trains/planes in Italian)).
Right, enough. I’m off to dream up some dastardly phrasal verb activities with which to wreak my linguistic revenge. I’ll have a spot of sadistic fun watching Italians writhe while trying to get their heads round these idiomatically idiotic – for Italians – verbs. Cue evil head laughing off.
Happy language learning!
PS I have tried campaigning for ‘piacere’ and ‘mancare’ to be transformed into ‘normal’ verbs, but Italians think I’m nuts! I love language, I really do, honest. Io piaccio l’Italiano too (with apologies, maybe, to passing Italians and horrified teachers of Italian).
Teresa says
Hi people! My native language is Italian I live in Italy and I’m 17. I’ve studied English for about 9 years and I really love this language as I love modern Greek. The verbs “mancare” and “picaere” are particularly cuz you have to say:
“Mi piace” (I like) because we have to explain that something is pleasant to us.
“Mi” is the English form (to me). Think for example about “give it to me” (dammi esso) that we translate it directly into “dammelo”. Dammi is “dare” (to give) plus the particle “Mi” so it becomes “give me”.
I can understand it is very difficult for English speakers to understand these verbs because it is also very difficutl to explain it for an Italian.
But here I write the verbs:
PIACERE
Mi piace (I like)
Ti piace (you like)
Gli/le piace (he, she likes)
Ci piace (we like)
Vi piace (you like)
A loro piace (they like)
MANCARE
Mi manca (I miss him/her)
Ti manca (you miss him/her)
Gli/le manca (He/She misses him/her)
Ci manca (we miss him/her)
Vi manca (you miss him/her)
A loro manca (they miss him/her)
That’s all if you try to remember the particles before the verbs and then conjugate the verbs in the correct case you will get the correct form. I strongly agree that you can replace the verb “piacere” with “amare” but as in English the verb “to love” is stronger than saying “to like” but it can work. You can replace the verb “mancare” with “ho nostalgia di” (to be nostalgic) but it is a bit forced. For example:
“Mi manchi” (I miss you)
“Ho nostalgia di te” (it is another way to say you miss someone)
If you talk about trains you use the verb “perdere” for example:
“Ho perso il treno” (I missed the train) it would be a wrong translation if you translate into English word by word in this case because it would become “I lost the train” that is uncorrected.
That’s all!
Greeting from Italy,
Teresa
marco says
I am sorry, but there is a BIG grammar mistake behind all the reasonment otherwise funny.
In the sentence MI piace il vino. The Pronuon MI is not the equivalent of ME (English), despite having the same pronounciation.
ME (English) is the Equivalent of ME (Italian) that is the accusative form of the nominative IO (“I” in English)
“MI” is not accusative: MI is the DATIVE FORM and it means “TO ME” or “BY ME”
So the sentence literally means BY ME THE WINE (INTRANSITIVE) IS LIKED
You need to go over B1 Level of Grammar to appreciate these differences, but I guarantee that your funny translations like : ‘me it likes the wine‘ although may sound from …Liverpool or Manchester (like in the song “me hiding me head in the sand”) are really really off topic.
Nothing personal, my friend: it’s just grammar
Alex Roe says
Should have paid more attention in those Latin classes, Marco. Now that I know Mi can mean “by me”, the lovely verb piacere is clearer and, oddly, nobody in Italy had ever pointed this out to me (And I wrote this little post a while ago too) – if only someone had! I might not have ever written this post. Even so, I still find piacere a dastardly verb though this may no longer be the case. Believe it or not, I have read books on Italian grammar though obviously the wrong books.
Even you have to admit that ‘by me the wine is liked’ is a bit OTT. “I like wine” is so much simpler and easier to understand too 🙂
Thanks for the grammar lesson!
Best,
Alex
PS I still reckon piacere needs to be transformed into a ‘normal’ verb 😉
Luca Boccianti says
the first english phrase an italian student should be teached is “how do you do”.
try word by word translation on this and you’ll be vaccinate forever!
ainitfunny says
I disagree, the first phrase I learned in Italian was “How do you say this in italian?” It helped me immeasurably to quickly learn the language!
Fra says
Uh! Do not take linguistic revenge, please!
Italians have troubles with phrasal verbs because they don’t realize they exist in italian too! They are just less common than in English and not officially recognized. This is actually one of those times when the two languages help each other.
Far fuori = to kill, far su = to wrap, tirar sotto = to run over, tirar giù = to copy down, metter su = to build, tagliar fuori = to exclude etc etc…
You can also point out to your pupils that in this way you cover many meanings knowing just one verb. Always look at the bright side.
I verbi frasali mi piacciono parecchio. Keep in mind that what is liked in Italian will be the subject of the sentence, not the object like in English, even if usually the sentence is “mi piace il vino” so that the subject is in the end. But if you say ” il vino piace a me” grammatically speaking everythig gets in place “soggetto-verbo-complemento di termine”. Hope it helps.
Bye!
Becca says
I agree with the other commenters, that mentally translating piacere as “is pleasing to me” helps make sense of the syntax. I have a question about this verb, though: If you want to say “we liked something,” should you say “ci piace Roma” or “a noi piace Roma”? I went with “ci piace” and I got the impression that the usage was incorrect.
Alex Roe says
Hi Rebecca,
I had to consult on the ‘ci piace’ or ‘a noi piace’ thing! Apparently ‘ci piace Roma’, while being technically perfect, is regarded as being clumsy in Italian – it’s better to say something like ‘ad entrambi piace Roma’ – ‘both of us like Rome’. ‘A noi piace Roma’ ‘We like Rome’ is OK too – if the question is ‘A voi piace Roma?’. Well, that’s what I’ve understood – but as I have said, the Italian verb piacere still causes me problems – non mi piace il verbo piacere!
Note that ‘Mi piace la Roma’ means you like the Rome football team, not the eternal city! But you probably knew that – I did not, and discovered that I didn’t this evening! Oops!
Ciao,
Alex
charles says
Russian has the same construction for ‘liking’ something. And I always dealt with it in my head by the same sidestep to ‘it’s appealing to me’ as others mentioned above.
kris says
Even after so many years together, my Italian husband laughs at me that I still have a difficult time with the verb “mancare” and everytime we hear that Neffa song “Tu Non Mi Manchi”, I still can’t figure out if he doesn’t miss her or if she doesn’t miss him!! 🙂
Alex Roe says
Yes, Kris, piacere’s evil twin mancare still causes me problems! Saying something simple, in English, like “I miss you”, does not roll off the tongue that easily.
As I suspected, I’m not the only one who has problems with pleasure!
Ciao,
Alex
Julian says
oh! I just read klee’s comment!
Alex Roe says
Thanks to you and Klee for trying to help me out of my confusion!
I’ll have a go at thinking of my old enemy as ‘pleases’ or ‘pleasing’ and see if it helps!
Might please others to know this too.
Cheers ragazzi,
Alex
Julian says
I might be wrong but, can’t you just think of it this way:
“mi piace il vino” = “il vino mi piace”
which translates into “wine pleases me”
probably “to please” is not identical to “piacere”, but it might help to understand the grammar (or whatever it’s called)
I think the source of the confusion comes from traslating the verb “piacere” to the verb “to like” instead of “to please”, even though in every day use people use “like” and “piacere” to express the same.
klee says
Piacere is more like “it pleases” or “it is pleasing”, and if you think of it in this way, it is easier to form the sentences. “the sun is pleasing to me” “mi piace il sole”