Question 1

Why is it piacciono and not piace here?

Accepted Answer

In Italian, the thing you like is actually the subject of the sentence doing the "pleasing." Since she likes horses (a plural noun), the verb must be the plural piacciono (are pleasing). If she liked just one horse, it would be Le piace il cavallo.

Question 2

I thought le meant "the" (plural feminine). Why does it mean "she" here?

Accepted Answer

You are right that le is the feminine plural "the" (like in le ragazze). But here, it is a pronoun meaning "to her". With verbs like piacere, we literally say "To her, horses are pleasing," so we use le. If it were a man liking horses, we would use gli (to him).

Question 3

Why is there an i before cavalli? In English we just say "She likes horses," not "She likes the horses."

Accepted Answer

In Italian, when you talk about a general category or everything in a group (like all horses or all snakes), you almost always use a definite article (il, la, i, le). So "horses" in general must be translated as i cavalli.

Question 4

Why does the sentence use ha paura instead of the verb "to be" for "is afraid"?

Accepted Answer

In English, we say someone "is" afraid, but in Italian, you "have" fear. Ha is the she/he form of avere (to have), and paura means fear. Italians use "to have" for several feelings or physical states, like being hungry (avere fame) or thirsty (avere sete).

Question 5

Where does the word dei come from in dei serpenti?

Accepted Answer

Dei is a combination of the word di (of) and the plural masculine article i (the). Because the phrase is literally "fear of the snakes" (paura di + i serpenti), the two small words merge together into dei.

Le piacciono i cavalli, ma ha paura dei serpenti.

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