"The boy likes elephants."
Translation:Al ragazzo piacciono gli elefanti.
157 Comments
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Oh so piacciono belongs to the elephants not the boy, and that is why you use the loro piacciono rather than the lui/lei version piace?
why does this work like that? by the boy - they are liked - the elephants... so weird
The simplest way to translate piacere is to intend it as "to be pleasing"; if you read it as "the elephants are pleasing to the boy" it won't seem as weird. The problem is that "piacere" describes an action coming from what in English is the object of "like"; there other verbs like that.
if it was "gli elefanti piacciono al ragazzo" i'd have an easier time understanding it... the order just makes it extra weird.
also, the hover text for piacciono is "like oneself." Which just seems weird, and does not fit the problem well.
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To the boy the elephants are pleasing. Translates perfectly. Different is all
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Maybe more literally, "To the boy, pleasing are the elephants"? This is so hard :'(
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Then I'd want to put 'piaciono' after 'gli elephanti' at the end of the sentence which is wrong. I know because that's what I did. Lol.
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carifrock, I can't reply directly to you so hopefully you'll get notified of this comment.
In English, we say "The boy likes the elephants" and conjugate "likes" to "the boy". In Italian, they literally say "To the boy are pleasing the elephants", or "The elephants please the boy", and that's why it's "piacciono" in the "they" form.
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Which refers to the elephants as they are plural and not the boy which is singular?
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"Gli elefanti piacciono al ragazzo" is what I put and it was considered correct.
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I am confused about the use of the word 'al'. Isn't it a contraction of 'at the' or 'to the'? Would it be correct to say 'il raggazzo...' as well? When should I choose 'al' as apposed to 'il'?
Yes, "al" is a contraction of "a+il"; whenever a word is introduced by a preposition you can be sure that it is neither the subject nor the direct object, as those are the cases when you'd just use "il". In this case "gli elefanti" is the subject (no preposition).
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F.f What would we do without you. Your explanations are so helpful and clear! ;-)
How am I supposed to know the elephants are the subject and not the boy? They sentence starts by referring to a boy?
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You didn't before, but now you do. This is how Duolingo teaches. In English, we say "I like a thing" and in Italian they say "To me is pleasing a thing", which if we turned it around in English would be "A thing pleases me."
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It's literally "To the boy are pleasing the elephants".
The elephants are pleasing to the boy.
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Because Italian is not English and is under no obligation to resemble English.
Thank you Ferdinando Formica. Although I had it incorrect because of my English way I now understand why I was wrong. Grazie..
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Maybe this is weird for native english speakers. Being a portuguese and spanish speaker this doesn't sound or look weird. But thanks for explaining it well
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"Al" is (I believe) a contraction of "a il". But I've seen "piacere" used both with and without "a", and I'm not sure when "a" should be included.
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It's based on the noun/pronoun used. It would "a Steve piacciono" or "a lei piacciono" but "gli piacciono" where gli is an indirect object pronoun so gli = (to/for) him
More from About.com about indirect object pronouns: http://italian.about.com/library/fare/blfare117a.htm
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I have italian lessons we have spent 3 lessons covering 'piacere' & I'm still getying these wrong :-(
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"ai ragazzi piacciono gli elefanti" is wrong? PS: I know the sentence shown here is different but i wanted to know if this form is also correct! ??
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humm ... then "piacciono" is wroten like this because "elefanti" is in the plural form, not because of the boy/boys? .. I think I got it
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Right. You have to think of piacere as "to be pleasing to". So in this case it is the elephants (plural) that are pleasing to the boy (singular)
Given that we need the article "gli" before "elephants", how does one then distinquish between "the boy likes elephants" (which is the English version given) and "the boy likes the elephants" (meaning these specific elephants and not necessarily elephants in general)?
I thought I understood that the verb piacciono agrees with the object, gli elefanti. But in a previous question "He doesn't like me" I lost a heart for writing "Io non gli piace." The correct answer was "Io non gli piaccio." Now I'm even more confused than before! Can someone explain why the verb agrees with the object in one sentence, but with the subject, Io, in the other?
Okay, after thinking about it I can answer this myself:
Al ragazzo piacciono gli elefanti. = The elephants are pleasing to the boy--subject elephants so piacciono.
Io non gli piaccio = I am not pleasing to him--subject "I" so piaccio. I was thrown by the translation "He doesn't like me" which makes "He" the subject in English.
Can anyone confirm my thinking?
You are correct, for simplicity reasons we always say phrases such as I like it, you like it, whereas the verb piaccere means pleasing of something. When you have the subject as He in the sentence it would change the usage of piaccere because the verb would be reflecting back on him. So they have us write it as I am not pleasing to him. Which would then be of course the io non gli piace. You could also technically write it with the proper reflexive pronouns such as non le piacce io. (Which technically is I do not please him.)
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I have the right words but in a different order. My answer is "Gli elefanti al ragazzo non piacciono." I got marked wrong. Is my word order unacceptable in Italian?
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No. It doesn't mean "to like". It means "to please/to be pleasing to". They don't say "The boy likes the elephants", they say "The elephants please the boy" or "The elephants are pleasing to the boy." But they put "to the boy" at the start.
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Another part I need to keep focused on is:
I (you, he, she, and everyone else) "piace" one elephant.
I (you, he, she, and everyone else) "piacciono" two or more elephants.
I (you, he, she, and everyone else) "piaci" you.
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I left a comment/inquiry about this a few months back. I speak spanish and I don't know how I missed the correlation here between the italian sentence and its spanish translation.
Here is the basic concept in spanish and italian: Me gusta. Mi piace. (I like it.) Me gustan. Mi piaccono. (I like them.) Once this is understood, it's easier to remember that when we are liking more than one of something we need to make this change when using this (like) particular verb.
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It's better to see that the pronoun is "mi" and not "io". This means something else is the grammatical subject.
Translated more literally, the verb piacere means "to please". In English, we say "I like elephants". In Italian, they say "Elephants please me".
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Just going to leave the Greek translation here... "Του αγοριού αρέσουν οι ελέφαντες" Took me some time to understand...
Yes, Italian and Greek often think alike in these matters :) Another one is "mi manchi" = "μου λείπεις" = "I miss you".
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How strict is Italian word order? I put 'Piacciono gli elefanti al ragazzo' which is obviously the right words in a different order and was marked wrong but I would have thought that you could formulate it this way too?
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I have a similar question about word order. I put the verb at the end of the sentence, thinking that would be acceptable. I had all the words themselves correct. Is only one word order right for this sentence?
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It isn't wrong! Nel parlato la si usa più di quella proposta da Duo, but it is a less literal translation.
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Problem is with the prompt. If the original prompt gave the literal translation, we would be more likely to get it. It is not so different in English if one uses the word "pleasing." "The boy likes elephants" is not really what is being said. A more accurate translation would be helpful--both in understanding Italian speech patterns and getting the right answer.
Err, that wouldn't be the most accurate translation at all; you can't go speaking broken English just because it's closer to the Italian wording. You wouldn't say "football pleases me" when asked about your hobbies.
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Actually, there is nothing grammatically or syntactically wrong with "Football pleases me." If anything, it's a more formal register, which is why the average person doesn't usually say it that way.
That's true, I didn't word that right; what I meant was that "to please" to me is a verb with a completely different meaning from "to like", and albeit "to please" is etymologically related to "piacere", it does not mean that. For instance, "he's eager to please" and "he's eager to be liked" are different concepts to me, although I see that online dictionaries do give "desideroso di piacere" as a translation; reverso instead has "ansioso di compiacere" (among others), which is much closer in my opinion. In the same way "I like my girlfiend" and "my girlfriend pleases me" sound different, the latter slightly creepy. But it might be down to me not being a native speaker and not knowing some of the usages of the word.
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I am a native speaker of American English, and to me "eager to please" very strongly implies "eager to be liked", to the point of being more or less synonymous.
To guarantee an adult meaning, you would use the verb "to pleasure", although it's rare outside of certain actively adult contexts to use it in the present tense. It is possible to read a more adult meaning into "[person] pleases me", but that's secondary to being more or less synonymous with "I like [person]".
As far as usage of "X pleases me" vs "I like X", it's common to say "This pleases me" humorously, with the speaker pretending to be a powerful or villainous character.
Why we have to use al ragazzo singular and the verb piacano used for the plural
How come the answer is not "Al ragazzo si piacciono gli elefanti"? If I am not mistaken, for a singular elephant it would be "Al ragazzo si piace l'elefante." I haven't learned reflexives but could someone give me a beginners explanation to this type?
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No, "al ragazzo piace l'elefante". "The boy likes himself" = Il ragazzo si piace = al ragazzo piace se stesso.
why piacciono? the boy is singular, it is NOT "they" - "loro" it is "he" - lui???
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piacere belongs to the elephants, not to the boy. Given the elephants are third person plural, it is the loro version not the lui/lei version.
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That is just how piacere works. It doesn't work like "likes" in English. First think of the elephants as the subject and the boy as the object. Next, piacere belongs to the elephants, and since they are third person plural we use the loro conjugation "piacciono". Now given the elephants are acting on the boy it is "[verb] to the boy" or "[verb] al ragazzo". One way to think about it is "to the boy, pleasing are the elephants" or "al ragazzo piacciono gli elefanti"
The word piacere is a pain in my butt. How to rearrange the sentence so everything jibes is forever vexing me!
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Just learn it as an exception, and after reinforcing that exception many times, it becomes very easy.
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No, it isn't. ( Gli elefanti piacciono a lui = A lui piacciono gli elefanti). The true subject is "gli elefanti".
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Gli elefanti is plural. "The elephants are pleasing the the boy" is what the sentence is saying exactly. The verb conjugates to the object (which is gli elefante in this sentence). Place is for singular object, piaccono is for plural objects. "Mi pace il libro" = The book is pleasing to me / I like the book. "Mi piaccano le scarpe" = The shoes are pleasing to me / I like the shoes
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Because there are two conjugations for Piacere to explain you (or the person in the sentence) likes something. The verb reflects the object (gli elefanti in this sentence). Since "gli elefanti" is plural it would be piaccono. If it was l'elefante it would be "Al ragazzo piace l'elefante" = The elephant is pleasing to the boy / The boy likes the elephant
"piaciono" isn't "they like"? Verb conjugations are SO confusing. English language learners complain about how complicated English is, but just when you think you've got the patterns for conjugating Italian, up pop the exceptions! My practice sentence --- The boy likes elephants. = Al (not il?) )ragazzo piaciono (not piace?) gli elefanti. Is it because "elephants" is plural?
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Yes. Literally, it's "To the boy are pleasing the elephants." The actual subject is "the elephants" and although it's turned around a little bit, we can say the same thing in English: "The elephants are pleasing to the boy", or simply "The elephants please the boy."
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Because "piace" does not mean "likes". It means "is pleasing".
Word for word, this sentence breaks down as "To the boy are pleasing the elephants", or re-arranged into English grammar, "The elephants are pleasing to the boy", or more simply, "The elephants please the boy".
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Why is it 'al gatto piace..' but 'al ragazzo piacciono...'? Wouldn't piacciono be for 'ai ragazzi'?
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al is a+il, so it's not simply "the boy" but rather "to the boy".
In English, we say "The boy likes elephants", but in Italian they say "To the boy please elephants". It's the elephants that are pleasing the boy, not the boy who is liking the elephants.
We actually do something similar in English, only without the preposition. On the one hand, we say "I like that dog", but on the other hand we say "That dog scares me".
So in the Italian sentence, it's "piacciono" to agree with "gli elefanti".
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Because in English we say "The boy likes the elephants."
But in Italian, they say "The elephants please the boy", or more literally "To the boy please the elephants."
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The grammar is different here. The subject and object are actually the reverse of English. We say "The boy likes the elephants", but Italian they say "The elephants are pleasing to the boy", or "To the boy are-pleasing the elephants."
So rather than "il ragazzo" it's "a il ragazzo", but the contraction of "a il" to "al" is mantatory.
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al is a + il, or "to the".
This link explains which form of "the" to use:
http://www.oneworlditaliano.com/english/italian-grammar/italian-definite-articles.htm
This link explains how to combine prepositions and definite articles:
https://ciaoitaliablog.wordpress.com/classes/italian-preposition-with-definite-article/
The rules for which articulated preposition to use are identical to the rules for which definite article to use, as I'm sure you can understand why.
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In English, we say "The boy likes the elephants". In Italian, they say "The elephants please the boy". The direction of the verb is switched, so it's not the boy that's the subject but the elephants, and the verb must conjugate to the subject.
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Please read the rest of the comments on this page. Your question has already been addressed several times.
It does: elefanti -> piacciono. The boy here is the indirect object.
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So literally, this is something like, 'To the boy, the elephants are pleasing'?
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Note how it's "al ragazzo" and not "il ragazzo". It's literally "To the boy are pleasing the elephants". The direction of the liking is different than it is in English. It's like "gustar" in Spanish. Instead of "I like the thing", it's "The thing pleases me". In Italian, it's "The thing is pleasing to me".
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This has been addressed in the comments on this page before.
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"The boy likes elephants" works like "Elephants please the boy" in Italian (and Spanish). For that reason piacciono is used instead of piace.
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Is the word order really so important here? Piacciono has to go in the middle?
No, "al ragazzo gli elefanti piacciono" would be fine if you want to stress "like". "Piacciono al ragazzo gli elefanti" instead would only be used in poetry or song lyrics.
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But why are the elephants not first in the sentence? As in 'the elephants please the boy'?
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This has been explained on this page before. It's the same reason why the verb is conjugated 3rd person plural.
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there seems to be problem with the AGREEMENT
"Al ragazzo" " the boy" is III person singular
and the verb
essi 'piacciono, piaciono" is III person plural
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With this verb, think of the sentence construction as meaning: Elephants are pleasing to the boy. Hence the third person plural.
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thanks a lot, I was able to solve it later. It's OK now, Actually translation is to be done in its own way
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the boy is the same as he so it should be al ragazzo piace gli elefanti
piacciono would be for they (loro)
boy is singular not plural
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The subject is "gli elefanti". As you can see, "il ragazzo" is the object of the preposition "a". Literally translated, this sentence says "To the boy are pleasing the elephants", or in English grammar: "The elephants are pleasing to the boy."
This has been explained on here before.
To say "The boy likes the elephants", you need to use the Lui/Lei, i.e., "piace" form of the verb "piacere", since the boy is the one who likes the elephants.
Using "piacciono" states "The elephants please the boy", which totally changes the meaning of the sentence.
You don't understand how piacere works, but at least someone agrees with me that to please and to be liked are different things. The subject here is "gli elefanti", plural, so you cannot use "piace", singular.
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Your answer is INCORRECT: Al ragazzo le piace is correct. Al ragazzo piaciono is incorrect
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Please read the rest of the comments on this page for a breakdown of the grammar of this sentence and why it is in fact correct.
Also, "le piace" means he likes a singular feminine unspecified thing. This cannot substitute for a specified thing he likes (elephants), which is plural and masculine.
The translations is ridiculous. There are EASIER ways to say the "the boy likes elephants," and some of the translations on duolingo make it UNNECESSARILY difficult to understand. It's just as acceptable and CORRECT to say "Il ragazzo piace gli elifanti."
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. I find this translation questionable because the English sentence has the verb attached to the subject -the boy- with the elephants being the object and the translation makes them the subject with the boy being the object
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why ' al ragazzo piacciono gli elefanti ?' if that means : the boy like elephants. , the right would 'il ragazzo come gli elefanti.' and no Al ragazzo piacciono gli elefanti.
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The exact conjugation of "Al ragazzo piacciono gli elefanti" is "The elephants are pleasing to the boy". So it would be "al" because it means 'to the'
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okay. but in italian the word "piacciono" means "like" so i think that my answer is right.
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I cannot agree with this. It would literally say," to the boy (they like) elephants.
Sorry, but I find it funny that you'd feel the need to agree with how a language works :P Don't get me wrong, there are many (too many) in the Italian forum that would like to change English as well, but I can't help but think that's a pretty funny attitude.
