Îți place acest film?

Îți means to you. It is the unstressed dative pronoun form used with tu.

Romanian uses a plăcea differently from English to like. The structure is closer to to be pleasing to someone. So:

• Îți place acest film? = literally Is this film pleasing to you?
• natural English meaning: Do you like this film?

If you want extra emphasis, Romanian can also add the full pronoun:

• Ție îți place acest film? = Do you like this film?

Because the verb here is a plăcea, which works like to please rather than English to like.

So the person who experiences the feeling is in the dative:

• îți = to you

And the thing liked is the grammatical subject:

• acest film = this film

That is why Romanian says, in effect, This film pleases you.

This pattern is very common in Romanian:

• Îmi place cafeaua. = I like coffee.
• Îi place muzica. = He/She likes music.

Because acest film is singular, and the verb agrees with that singular subject.

• acest film = singular
• so the verb is place = singular

If the thing liked were plural, you would use plac:

• Îți plac aceste filme? = Do you like these films?

So the choice between place and plac depends on the thing being liked, not on the person who likes it.

Acest means this. It is a demonstrative adjective modifying film.

It has to match the noun in gender and number:

• acest film = this film masculine singular
• această carte = this book feminine singular
• acești băieți = these boys
• aceste fete = these girls

So here acest is used because film is masculine singular.

Yes. Acest film and filmul acesta both mean this film.

The difference is mostly one of style and emphasis:

• acest film often sounds a bit more neutral, careful, or written
• filmul acesta is very common in everyday speech

So these are both fine:

• Îți place acest film?
• Îți place filmul acesta?

You will hear both.

Romanian does not use an auxiliary like English do to form this kind of question.

English:

• Do you like this film?

Romanian:

• Îți place acest film?

The same word order can be used for both statement and question; intonation and the question mark show that it is a question:

• Îți place acest film. = statement
• Îți place acest film? = question

No, Romanian word order is fairly flexible, but Îți place acest film? is the most neutral and natural version.

You can move things around for emphasis:

• Acest film îți place? = puts more focus on this film
• Ție îți place acest film? = puts more focus on you

Still, if you are learning the basic pattern, Îți place acest film? is the best form to use first.

Îți can be tricky for English speakers.

A rough guide:

• î is a Romanian vowel with no exact English equivalent
• ți sounds roughly like ts with a very slight y-like softness after it

So îți is approximately îtsʲ, though that spelling is phonetic rather than learner-friendly.

A practical approximation is:

• start with a short central vowel
• then say ts
• keep it short and light

The important thing is not to pronounce it like English itchy or eetsy. It is a very short word.

You would use vă instead of îți:

• Vă place acest film?

This can mean:

• Do you like this film? when speaking politely to one person
• Do you all like this film? when speaking to several people

Notice that the verb is still place, because film is still singular.

Common short answers are:

• Da, îmi place. = Yes, I like it.
• Nu, nu-mi place. = No, I don’t like it.

You can also answer with the noun:

• Da, îmi place acest film.
• Nu, nu-mi place filmul acesta.

Here îmi means to me, matching the same pattern as îți:

• îmi place = I like
• literally it pleases me