Italian All-in-One For Dummies (155 page)

Nowhere is sound as important as in the subjunctive because one difference in the pronunciation lets you know that a different verb mood is being used. Because the subjunctive lets you express nuance, doubt, and emotion (among other things), pronunciation is important. Flip to
Chapter 1
in Book I for an introduction to pronunciation.

Ti piace/dispiace
(
You like/dislike it
) indicates that you definitely like/dislike something.
Credo che ti piaccia/dispiaccia
(
I think you like/dislike it
) means that you're not entirely sure. To say that you don't like something, you can also simply say
No, non mi piace.
The word
non
makes the sentiment negative.

Past absolute

You use the past absolute (see
Chapter 1
in Book V) to describe things that happened long ago and far away.

Use of the past absolute, or the
passato remoto,
varies depending on where you are. Some regions of Italy hardly ever use it; in other regions, especially Sicily, people use it more often.

The past absolute shows up most frequently in literature and opera. To read Dante's
Inferno,
or any of the classics for that matter, you need to be able to recognize the past absolute. For example,
com'altrui piacque
(
as pleased another
) achieves almost formulaic status in the
Inferno.
The past absolute is notoriously irregular, so much so that when you look at conjugated forms, you sometimes can't figure out what the source infinitive is.

Being able to recognize the past absolute and understanding the most irregular forms are generally all you need to get by. You probably don't need to study the past absolute too much or memorize its conjugations. Here are the past absolute forms of
piacere
and
dispiacere.

Checking out more conjugations for piacere and dispiacere

Piacere
has different conjugations for the future, the conditional, the present perfect, and the imperfect. This section covers all of them.
Note:
In the interests of giving you workable (read: useful) grammar, this section uses only the third person forms of these various tenses and moods.

Future

The future tense of
piacere/dispiacere
is
piacerà/dispiacerà
(singular) and
piaceranno/dispiaceranno
(plural). If, for example, you're telling a friend about a movie you just saw that you think she'll like, you use the future tense and say
Ti piacerà
(
You'll like it
). You can also use this tense to introduce someone to friends who you think that person will like:
Ti piaceranno
(
You'll like them
). Check out the following examples:

I miei amici italiani ti piaceranno di sicuro
. (
You will certainly like my Italian friends.
)

Ti dispiacerà sapere che il volo è stato cancellato.
(
You will be sorry to know that the flight has been canceled.
)

You can use the future tense to indicate probability. So
ti piacerà
can also mean
you will probably like it.
Check out
Chapter 5
in Book IV for more about the future tense.

Conditional

You use the conditional (
piacerebbe/dispiacerebbe
[singular] or
piacerebbero/dispiacerebbero
[plural]) to express something that may be. For example, say you're expressing reservations about something, so you say
Non mi dispiacerebbe ma . . .
(
I wouldn't mind it, but . . .
). Or you think someone would like something:
Ti piacerebbero
(
You would like them
).

Frequently, this construction includes a follow-up clause, explaining just why you like or don't like something. The conditional is often part of a complex sentence that uses the subjunctive for its second half. Flip to
Chapter 5
in Book IV for more about the conditional.

Present perfect and imperfect

Knowing when to use either the present perfect or the imperfect takes practice. You can simplify this decision by considering the following questions each tense answers.

The
present perfect
(
è piaciuto/a, è dispiaciuto/a
[singular] or
sono piaciuti/e, sono dispiaciuti/e
[plural]) answers the questions, “What happened? What did you (or someone else) do?” In the case of
piacere,
it's often paired with the question, “Did you like it/them?”

The present perfect refers to a completed past action, something you started and finished, something that's over.

The
imperfect
(
piaceva
[singular] or
piacevano
[plural]) answers different questions: “What was something like? What was going on? What used to (habitually) go on? What did you used to do, regularly?”

The imperfect is the ultimate descriptive tense. The reason fairy tales begin with
C'era una volta . . .
(
Once upon a time, there was . . .
) is because they're opening up a story about the past that isn't completed, that isn't yet perfected — that's imperfect. See
Chapter 1
in Book V for more on past tenses.

For example, you give someone a book to read and want to know whether she liked it:
Ti è piaciuto il libro?
(
Did you like the book?
) Or you show a friend a house you're thinking of renting or buying and want to get his opinion:
Gli è piaciuta la casa
(
He liked the house
). In both cases, you're talking about something that has happened, so you use the present perfect: She liked the book. He liked the house. End of story.

The thing liked determines the gender of
piaciuto.
A book, being masculine, takes
piaciuto.
A house, being feminine, takes
piaciuta.
The plural forms follow this suit, too.

Ti sono piaciuti i libri?
(
Did you like the books?
)

Gli sono piaciute le case.
(
He liked the houses.
)

Verbal clues that tell you an action is recent and completed include
ieri
(
yesterday
),
due settimane fa
(
two weeks ago
), and other phrases that fix a time.