Questions & Answers about M'agrada l'olor del pa al forn.
What is the sentence’s literal structure?
A helpful word-by-word breakdown is:
- M'agrada = it pleases me / I like
- l'olor = the smell
- del pa = of the bread / often just of bread in natural English
- al forn = in the oven / oven-baked, depending on context
So the Catalan structure is basically:
[To me] [is pleasing] [the smell] [of the bread] [in the oven].
Why does Catalan use M'agrada for I like?
Because agradar does not work like English to like.
In Catalan, agradar literally means something like to be pleasing to. So:
- M'agrada l'olor... = The smell ... is pleasing to me
- Natural English translation: I like the smell...
This is why the person who likes something is not the grammatical subject in the same way as in English.
What does m' stand for?