Piacere...

For the last few weeks, two topics to write about have been occupying my thoughts. But seeing as I don't have internet on my computer, and writing from my phone is very tiresome, I waited untill this moment. One topic was about the Italian language, the learning, the hard work, the crazy grammar rules that gets you cross-eyed. The other was about things that have happened, things I have discovered, the Italian people, etcetera.

Off course, now I've finally found a computer to write on, I lost all inspiration and I'm even unsure what were the exact topics.

So I'll fling this topic on the fly...
*think think think*

Ok, it'll be a story about grammar. How they use the verb 'piacere' to like.
As I've told before, Italian has a lot more changes in their verbs. A regular verb that ends with -ere (like temere would change like this (in the present):
Io teme (1st person, singular) i fear
Tu temi (2nd person, singular)  you fear
Lui/lei teme (3rd person, singular) he/she fears
Noi temiamo (1st person, plural) we fear
Voi temete (2nd person, plural) you fear
Loro temono (3rd person, plural) they fear

In the english language (and also the Dutch) the verb liking is influenced by the person doing the liking.
So, this would mean piacere would change like this:
I like - io piaco
You like - tu piaci
He/she likes  - lui/lei piace
We like  - noi piaciamo
You like - piacete
They like - piacono

However, in Italian this is not the case. The verb is influenced by the thing that is liked, which will almost always be a third person singular or plural. Furthermore, it's refered to as a 'verbo riflessivo'. Which is a whole other story, in short: by adding another word to the verb, you say who is doing the action, in this case the liking. Instead of saying; io piace (i like that), you say; mi piace (that is liked by me).

So, to end with the correct list of verbs:
I like - mi piace (one thing) mi piacciono (more things)
You like  - ti piace (one thing) ti piacciono (more things)
He/she likes - si piace (one thing) si piacciono (more things)
We like - ci piace (one thing) ci piacciono (more things)
You like - vi piace (one thing) vi piacciono (more things)
They like - si piace (one thing) si piacciono (more things)