Piacere - to like and Servire - to need
| piaccio |
piacciamo |
|
|
servo |
serviamo |
| piaci |
piacete |
|
|
servi |
servite |
| piace |
piacciono |
|
|
serve |
servono |
Piacere (a) literally means "to be pleasing,"
so to form a sentence you have to invert the word
order. You must also use the prepositional contractions
with a.
Maria piace a Giovanni. John
likes Mary. (Literally: Mary is pleasing
to John)
Gli studenti piacciono ai professori. The
teachers like the students. (Literally:
The students are pleasing to the teachers).
The most common forms are the third
person singular and plural when used with object
pronouns. The object pronouns that are used
with these two verbs are somewhat similar to the
reflexive pronouns:
| mi |
I (to me) |
ci |
we (to us) |
| ti |
you (to you) |
vi |
you (to you) |
| gli / le |
he / she (to him / her) |
gli |
they (to them) |
So to say I like something, use
Mi piace if it is singular and Mi piacciono
if it is plural.
Mi piace il calcio. I like soccer.
Mi piacciono i treni. I like trains.
Servire has the same construction as
piacere. It is also used primarily in the
third person singular and plural forms and takes
an indirect object.
Ti servono della frutta? Do
you need any fruit? (Literally: By
you is needed some fruit?)
Il pane serve a Marco. Marco needs
the bread. (Literally: The bread
is needed by Marco.)
