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- "A loro non piacciono i caval…
52 Comments
its because of how piacere is. it doesn't mean 'to like' its is 'to be pleasing to'. So you need the 'A' before to have it be correct. "To them the horses are not pleasing" ... but in english it doesn't make much sense so we just think 'they don't like the horses'. its not a literal translation unfortunately which makes these statements with piacere confusing to english speakers
Italian has great flexibility in terms of the placement of the subject and verb. I am not as sure about the Italian, but in Spanish you COULD make that syntactic change, but this way is used all the time. There is something about this word. Actually, in Shakespeare you will find examples of like used as here. But among romance languages Spanish and Italian use like this way, with the thing liked as the subject, while French and Portuguese are like Modern English. But for whatever reason, the similar syntax is the common one for both.
170
I am studying Spanish and this scructure is very similar on it. It would be "a ellos no les gustan los caballos". It means that the horses are not pleasing to them.
I also speak Spanish, but I have always objected to the idea that these verbs mean anything different from like. Translating them as anything but like suggests that there would be some other way to say like or that it was something inherently different from to like. Defining it as "is pleasing to" works as a memory gimmick to remember that the Italian (or Spanish) uses the thing liked as the subject of the sentence. There actually was that construction in English during Shakespeare's time. Portuguese uses the same verb as Spanish - gustar, but their syntax is like ours in English.
"loro" can mean "to them" (indirect object) as well as "they" (subject) http://italian.about.com/library/fare/blfare166a.htm Maiden & Robustelli say it's a formal usage, but I like formal.
1556
Infatti non è sbagliato , ma desueto. Con il verbo piacere si usa :
mi piacciono / piacciono a me
ti piacciono /piacciono a te
gli/le piacciono / piacciono a lui/lei
ci piacciono /piacciono a noi
a loro piacciono
Loro comunque va bene, in generale, per esprimere il complemento di termine:
consegno loro un libro....
riferisco loro il risultato....
Usually Amare has a stronger meaning than Piacere. For example: A loro non piacciono i cavalli= they don't like horses; Loro non amano i cavalli=they don't love horses/they don't like horses very much; A me non piacciono i cavalli= I don't like horses; Non amo i cavalli=I don't love horses/I don't like horses very much
"loro" can mean "to them" (indirect object) as well as "they" (subject) http://italian.about.com/library/fare/blfare166a.htm Maiden & Robustelli say it's a formal usage, but I like formal.