Learn Italian: Mi sono piaciuti molto i balli di ieri sera. - I really liked the dances last night.

Mi sono piaciuti molto i balli di ieri sera.

I really liked the dances last night.

Breakdown of Mi sono piaciuti molto i balli di ieri sera.

Questions & Answers about Mi sono piaciuti molto i balli di ieri sera.

Why do we use sono piaciuti instead of è piaciuto here?

With the verb piacere, the thing you like is actually the subject of the sentence doing the 'pleasing'. Since you liked i balli (the dances), which is a masculine plural noun, the verb must match it. We use the plural sono and make the past participle end in -i for masculine plural, giving us sono piaciuti.

Does the Mi at the beginning mean 'I'?

Not exactly! Mi means 'to me'. Because piacere works backwards compared to English, the literal translation of this sentence is 'The dances of last night were very pleasing to me.' This is also why we use the helping verb essere (to be) for the past tense of this verb.

Why is molto placed before i balli?

In Italian, adverbs like molto (really / a lot) usually go right after the verb they modify. Here, it modifies the verb phrase sono piaciuti, so it naturally sits right after it and before the subject i balli.

Why does 'last night' translate to ieri sera instead of using the word for 'night'?

Italians usually say ieri sera (yesterday evening) for the time between dinner and going to bed, which is when most social events like dances happen. The word for night (notte) is generally saved for the deep night when people are actually asleep!