We the Italians October 3, 2014 - 44 | Page 43

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Obviously, the peculiar cases of Italian phonetics are many and varied but soonwe will get back on the subject to give you further guidance. And above all, remember thatunderstanding the sounds of Italian and of any other language is as important as understanding its forms.

I like it!

The mistakes made by our students in the various Learn Italy locations are our mainsources of inspiration to help us understand what is more difficult in the eyes of foreigners who want to learn our language. For example, errors such as “io piace il caffè” or “il viaggio mi ha piaciuto”made me reflect on the need to concentrate for a moment on the correct use of the verb“piacere” (to like). The verb has a different conjugation from the English one:in Italian the subject is the object of appreciation, while, what in English is the subject, in Italian is the indirect object introduced by the preposition “a”. Let's make an example:“Luca likes pasta” in Italian is “a Luca piace la pasta”. If the indirect object is a pronoun, there are two possible constructions, one tonic and one atonic: for example, “a lei piacciono i dolci” or “le piacciono i dolci” (she likes sweets).Referring to the incorrect sentence “ilviaggio mi ha piaciuto”, I conclude by briefly recalling that the compound tenses always need the verb to be “il viaggio mi è piaciuto” (I liked the trip) and that the participle “piaciuto” (liked) must always be agreed in gender and number with the subject.

If you do exercise you will see that it is simple. I'm sure you will like it!

By Manuela Bianchi for learnitalygroup.com