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Mi è piaciuto molto questo festival speciale.

Mi è piaciuto molto questo festival speciale.
I liked this special festival a lot.
From Lesson 102:The verb piacere in the past tense (è piaciuto, sono piaciuti)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Mi è piaciuto molto questo festival speciale.

Why do we use è piaciuto here instead of 'ho piaciuto'?
In Italian, the verb piacere works backwards compared to English. Instead of saying 'I liked the festival', you literally say 'The festival was pleasing to me' (mi). Because the festival is the grammatical subject doing the action, we use the 'it' form of the verb. In the past tense, piacere always uses essere (to be) as its helper verb, giving us è piaciuto.
Why does piaciuto end in an 'o'?
Because piacere uses essere in the past tense, the ending of the past participle (piaciuto) has to match the subject. The subject here is questo festival. Since festival is a singular masculine word, we use piaciuto. If you liked a feminine noun, it would be mi è piaciuta, and if you liked multiple festivals, it would be mi sono piaciuti.
How do we know festival is masculine if it ends in a consonant?
Foreign loanwords that end in a consonant, like festival, computer, or bar, are generally treated as masculine in Italian. That is why we use the masculine word for 'this' (questo) and why the verb ending is masculine.
Why does speciale end in an 'e' if festival is masculine? Shouldn't it be 'specialo'?
No, speciale belongs to a specific group of adjectives that naturally end in 'e' for both masculine and feminine singular nouns. They never change to an 'o' or 'a'. If the noun were plural, it would change to an 'i' (speciali).
Why does molto come right after piaciuto?
In Italian compound tenses (like this past tense made of two words), adverbs that express quantity, like molto (a lot) or poco (a little), usually go right after the past participle. Placing it at the very end of the sentence is possible but sounds much less natural.

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