"Mi hanno detto che a loro piace leggere il giornale."
Translation:They told me that they like to read the newspaper.
14 Comments
1509
If you embrace your inner Yoda and break it down hyper-literally you get: "(to) me they have told". The sentence tells us who did the telling so we need to include that in the English translation.
(loro) hanno = they have, using the "hanno" form of "avere" implies the "they" so "loro" can be omitted. detto = past participle of "dire" = to tell
I hope that helps :)
"I was told" is better translated with "mi รจ stato detto che..." where the subject is not clear.
Duolingo has translated "il giornale" as "the paper" as well as "the newpaper" for as long as I can remember. Now it marks it wrong. Why is Duolingo so often inconsistent? It's very annoying.
- 26
They wrote in the italian sentense...che a loro piace.... Why tha "a" is there? can't it be "che loro piace" ?
Nope, since "piacere" in Italian has the "thing being liked" as the subject, and the "liker" as an indirect object.
In this case, the subject is the sentence "leggere il giornale", so you have 3rd person singular (piace). By the way, 3rd p. plural would be piacciono.
See it as "Reading the newspaper pleases them" = they like to read the newspaper.
- 26
They wrote in the italian sentense...che a loro piace.... Why tha "a" is there? can't it be "che loro piace" ?
Because the Italian literally means "It is pleasing to them to read the newspaper" so "piace" is singular.
