Îmi place cum cântă Andrei la chitară.

Andrei

Breakdown of Îmi place cum cântă Andrei la chitară.

• la: on
• îmi: me
• a plăcea: to like

Questions & Answers about Îmi place cum cântă Andrei la chitară.

Why is it Îmi place and not Eu plac in this sentence?

In Romanian, the verb a plăcea works the opposite way from English to like.

• English: I like X → I = subject, X = object.
• Romanian: Îmi place X → literally X pleases me.
  
  • X (what you like) is the subject.
  • Îmi (to me) is an indirect object (dative clitic pronoun).

So in Îmi place cum cântă Andrei la chitară:

• The subject of place is cum cântă Andrei la chitară (how Andrei plays the guitar).
• Îmi = mie (to me) – the person who experiences the pleasure.

Eu plac would mean I am pleasing (to someone), not I like.
To say I like something, you normally use Îmi place + what you like.

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What exactly does Îmi mean, and why is eu missing?