Question 1

Why is there an A before Marco?

Accepted Answer

In Italian, the verb piacere works differently than "to like" in English. It actually means "to be pleasing to". So instead of saying "Marco likes comic books", you literally say "Comic books are pleasing to Marco". That "to" is the A at the beginning of the sentence.

Question 2

Why is it piacciono instead of piace?

Accepted Answer

Because Marco likes i fumetti (the comic books), which is plural. Since piacere means "to be pleasing to", the comic books are the actual subject of the verb. Piacciono means "they are pleasing". If he liked a singular thing, like a book (il libro), you would use the singular piace.

Question 3

Why does preferisce work like a normal verb instead of using the A Marco structure?

Accepted Answer

Great observation! While piacere requires you to say "pleasing to Marco", the verb preferire (to prefer) works exactly like English. The person who prefers is the subject. The ending -isce already means "he prefers", so we don't need to say "to Marco" again, nor do we need the word for "he" (lui).

Question 4

Why do we need the word i before fumetti and film if we just say "comic books" and "movies" in English?

Accepted Answer

In Italian, when you talk about a broad category of things you like or dislike in a general sense, you almost always need to include the definite article (like il, la, or i).

Question 5

Wait, if film is plural here, why doesn't it end in -i?

Accepted Answer

Film is a foreign loan word in Italian. Words borrowed from other languages usually do not change their endings when they become plural. We can tell it means "movies" and not just one "movie" because it uses the plural article i.

A Marco piacciono i fumetti, ma preferisce i film.

Breakdown of A Marco piacciono i fumetti, ma preferisce i film.

Questions & Answers about A Marco piacciono i fumetti, ma preferisce i film.

Learn A Marco piacciono i fumetti, ma preferisce i film and more in Italian