Using "plaire" to express liking something / someone

Hi Bill, thanks for pointing that out. The word 'object' can be the source of a lot of confusion when we want to talk about objects in the traditional sense at the same time as verb objects, especially when their roles are reversed like this.

I've rephrased that sentence to remove the word 'object' entirely.

Pourquoi pas?

Because plaire needs an indirect object and the indirect object of elle is lui. 

Hi D,

Ce livre plaît à elle is not correct French it is,

Ce livre lui plaît .

You could say: Ce livre plaît beaucoup à Elsa.

But if you use a pronoun it will need to be before the verb.

Take a look at the examples in the lesson for further explanation.

Hope this helps!

Hi Stuart, 

You can do but more in written form although the 'manger me plaît' seems a bit strange to me using this structure.

I think you would say: " J'aime manger"...

You might say, "Danser le tango me plaît énormément" ...

Hope this helps!

You would probably want to say -

C'est ce que je croyais = That's what I thought

Hi Marnie,

This is a good point... 

Because 'aimer' signifies to 'love' someone, the French will often steer clear of it or add 'bien' to indicate just a liking for a person .

The verb 'plaire' is widely used in French to indicate a liking for a  thing or a person and some students avoid it as it is a difficult passive construction but that's probably the one you will hear most often.

Here are a few examples to indicate the differences -

Ce cinéma me plaît = I like this cinema ( in other words, you like going there)

as opposed to,

'J'aime le cinéma' which means, you like/love films

The following sentences highlight the differences between the two verbs used to convey very different meanings -

J'aime Michel = I love Michel

J'aime bien Michel = I like Michel 

Michel me plaît = I really like/ fancy Michel

which could be awkward !

Hope this helps!

Hi Mary,

In 'Je lui plais', for 'She likes me' , lui could replace both a man or a woman. You would know which from the context.

It is an indirect object pronoun which has to be used because the verb is 'plaire à '.

Have a look at the following lesson for more details-

Replacing people with lui, leur = him, her, them (indirect object pronouns)

Hope this helps !

Hi Stephen,

You cannot say, 

Ce restaurant plaît à nous. , it will be , Ce restaurant nous plaît.

You can however, say-

Ce restaurant plaît à Marie  because it is a named person .

When you use a pronoun it has to go before the verb.

Hope this helps!