Using "plaire" to express liking something / someone

In French, to say that you like [something] or find [someone] attractive ('like' them), you can use the verb plaire.

Look at these sentences with plaire:

As you can see, the structure of the sentence with plaire is quite different than with another verb like aimer. So ...

How to use plaire in a sentence ?

Think of the verb plaire as the verb to be pleasing in English:

Martha likes chocolate   ->   Chocolate pleases Martha.

In French, you actually say plaire à [quelqu'un] (lit. to be pleasing 'to' [someone])

Le chocolat plaît à Martha.

Note that the verb agrees with the thing being liked, not the person who likes it.

Therefore with things you only use the 3rd person of plaire: 3rd person singular - is pleasing (plaît in Le Présent) and 3rd person plural - are pleasing (plaisent in Le Présent).


BUT 

You can also use plaire with people to say to find [someone] attractive: 

In this case, you can use all conjugated forms of plaire:

French	English
je plais à Luc	Luc likes me
tu plais à Luc	Luc likes you
il/elle/on plaît à Luc	Luc likes him/her/us
nous plaisons à Luc	Luc likes us
vous plaisez à Luc	Luc likes you
ils/elles plaisent à Luc	Luc likes them

How to say I/you/he/she/we/they like [something/ someone] with plaire ?

Note that you're literally saying [this] is pleasing to me, you, him, her..., that's why you use indirect object pronouns me/te/lui/nous/vous/leur, as such:

See also Aimer = to love, like something / someone

ATTENTION:
In French you can also use the expression faire plaisir à [quelqu'un] to say to please [someone], to make [someone] happy.