From Mi Piace to Eu Gosto: Portuguese for Italian Speakers

Who is doing the liking?

With Portuguese gostar de, start with the person: eu gosto — “I like”; nós gostamos — “we like”; eles gostam — “they like.” Then add de and what the person likes.

In familiar Italian examples, mi piace il caffè and mi piacciono i film, the liked thing affects the form piace/piacciono. Treccani’s piacere entry documents these constructions. Do not carry the same pattern over by placing a Portuguese object pronoun before an unchanged verb.

This guide develops the idea of adapting practice to your language background in Bruno’s available study material. The comparisons and exercises are original, not an episode transcript or a claim that all Italian speakers have the same difficulty.

Keep the person fixed while the liked thing changes

In the Portuguese column, gosto stays the same because the person remains “I.” A plural noun after de does not turn it into gostam. If the speaker changes to “we,” change the verb: Nós gostamos de filmes.

The University of Texas’s What You Like To Do materials offer Brazilian examples of gosto de with activities. The lesson here focuses on changing the sentence you produce from an Italian cue, rather than translating a whole conversation word by word.

Do not lose de when you start speaking

Say Gosto de música — “I like music” — and Gosto de cozinhar — “I like cooking.” For this pattern, keep de even when the following item is an activity.

When an article is present, contractions can appear: de + o = do and de + a = da. Compare a general interest, Gosto de café, with a particular coffee, Gosto do café deste lugar — “I like this place’s coffee.” The point is which thing you mean, not a rule that every noun must carry an article.

For a broader explanation of the Portuguese construction, continue to our gostar de guide. Keep this page for the specific Italian-to-Portuguese practice task.

A question changes the speaker in the answer

Friend: Você gosta de cozinhar? — Do you like cooking?
You: Gosto, sim. Gosto de fazer massas. — Yes, I do. I like making pasta dishes.
Friend: E seus amigos? — And your friends?
You: Eles gostam de comer, mas não gostam de cozinhar. — They like eating, but they don’t like cooking.

The question uses gosta with você; your reply uses gosto for yourself. The final reply uses gostam for your friends. Each change follows the person, not the number of foods or activities mentioned.

Practice: change only the part that needs changing

1. Use an Italian cue: Mi piacciono i libri. Say the same general preference in Portuguese.
2. Change Eu gosto de viajar to “We like travelling.”
3. A friend asks Você gosta de café? You do. Give a short verb answer.
4. Say that your friends like music but do not like dancing.
5. You mean the coffee at one particular café. Complete Eu gosto ___ café deste lugar.

Finish by asking someone about one interest, answering about yourself and describing a third person. That three-way shift is a more useful check than repeating gosto ten times without changing the conversation.

Continue with related practice

Explore Three Habits That Make Speaking Portuguese Harder for related language or listening practice. The dialogues and exercises on this page are original written teaching examples. They are not episode transcripts or additional audio recordings.

Choose an everyday phrase in Real Life Portuguese and listen to the native Brazilian audio. Then prepare one new preference about yourself and one about someone else. Use the app’s actual phrase context for listening and this original speaker-change drill for speaking.

Disclosure: Bruno Lopes is a co-founder of the app. For focused feedback on your own replies, bring a short example to a trial lesson.