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Mi piace il gelato, ma non mi piacciono i biscotti.

Mi piace il gelato, ma non mi piacciono i biscotti.
I like ice cream, but I do not like cookies.
From Lesson 65:Plural preferences (mi piacciono)·Italian

Breakdown of Mi piace il gelato, ma non mi piacciono i biscotti.

ma
but
non
not
mi
to me
piacere
to please / to like
il gelato
the ice cream
il biscotto
the cookie

Questions & Answers about Mi piace il gelato, ma non mi piacciono i biscotti.

Why does the sentence use both piace and piacciono?
In Italian, the verb piacere (to like) matches the thing being liked. Because il gelato (ice cream) is singular, we use piace. Because i biscotti (cookies) are plural, we use piacciono (are pleasing).
Why do we use mi instead of the word for "I" (io)?
The verb piacere works backwards compared to English. It literally means "to be pleasing to." Instead of saying "I like ice cream," you are actually saying "Ice cream is pleasing to me." The word mi means "to me."
Why are the words il and i used here? In English, we don't say "I like the ice cream."
In Italian, when you talk about liking or disliking general categories (like ice cream or cookies), you always need to include the definite article (the word for "the"). That is why we use il gelato and i biscotti.
Where exactly does the word non go when saying you don't like something?
The negative word non must go right before the pronoun (mi). You cannot split up the pronoun and the verb, so it will always follow the pattern: non + mi + verb.

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