Learn Italian: Leggo romanzi perché non mi piacciono i fumetti. - I read novels because I do not like comic books.

Leggo romanzi perché non mi piacciono i fumetti.

I read novels because I do not like comic books.

Breakdown of Leggo romanzi perché non mi piacciono i fumetti.

Questions & Answers about Leggo romanzi perché non mi piacciono i fumetti.

Why is the verb piacciono instead of piace?

In Italian, the verb piacere works like "to be pleasing to." Instead of saying "I like comic books," you are actually saying "The comic books are pleasing to me." Because i fumetti (the comic books) is plural, you must use the plural form of the verb, which is piacciono.

How does the word order work for saying you don't like something here?

To make a negative sentence with piacere, you put the negative word non right before the pronoun (mi). So non mi piacciono literally translates to "not to me are pleasing."

Why does fumetti have the article i (the) in front of it, but romanzi (novels) doesn't?

When you say leggo romanzi (I read novels), you are talking about reading an undefined amount of them (like saying "I read some novels"), so no article is needed. But with piacere, the thing you like (i fumetti) is actually the grammatical subject of the sentence. In Italian, subjects almost always require a definite article, so you must include i.

I thought perché meant "why". Does it also mean "because"?

Exactly! The word perché does double duty in Italian. You use it to mean "why" when asking a question, and "because" when giving a reason, just like in this sentence.