Italian Lesson - Mi piace / I like, how to use it?

When you want to express your preferences, you may use one of the following verbsamare (to love) , odiare (to hate), preferire (to prefer), piacere (to like) 

• The verb "to like" is used with a different syntax is italian:

English: subject + like / likes + object/gerundexamples: I like the Renaissance painters or I like going shopping Italian: indirect object pronoun + piace / piacciono + subject/infinitive:examples: Mi piacciono i pittori del Rinascimento or Mi piace fare shopping

• As a consequence: 

The verb "piacere" must be conjugated with what follows, since it is the subject of a phrase. If it is singular we write "piace", if it is plural we write "piacciono"; see the following example:Mi piacciono i cantanti italiani -> I cantanti italiani piacciono a me So, when you have a doubt, you may use a method: transform the phrase as I've done.

• I must add that the basic syntax of italian phrases is:

SVO: Subject + Verb + Object -> even if we can invert the order of Object and Subject, to emphasize the object of the phrase. This is what happens when we use "I like" in Italian. Another example of emphasis is: Chi ha comprato il giornale? - Who bought the newspaper?Io ho fatto la spesa, ma il giornale l'ha comprato lui. (Note that "giornale" is put before the verb and it is repeated by the pronoun " l' ". The subject is "lui", placed after the verb.The correct form is: Io ho fatto la spesa, lui ha comprato il giornale - I went shopping but he bought the newspaper.)

• The use of indirect object pronouns

As you can see to use the verb "piacere" in correct way, you must have knowledge of the indirect object pronouns:mi, ti, gli / le, ci, vi, loro. (unstressed form or weak form)ora me, a te, a lui / a lei, a noi, a voi, ad essi or a loro. (stressed form or weak form) The most common mistake - made by italians - is to put "a me" and "mi" together - they mean the same thing!Mi piace il calcio / A me piace il calcio - I like football. (wrong form: "A me mi piace il calcio")We use the stressed form of pronouns to emphasize that someone like something, while others don't.A lei piace la cucina italiana, ma a loro no = She likes italian food, but they don't.