Le sono piaciuti i regali per l'anniversario.

Questions & Answers about Le sono piaciuti i regali per l'anniversario.

Why is it sono piaciuti and not ha piaciuto?
In Italian, piacere works backwards compared to the English verb 'to like'. The things being liked (i regali) are the actual subject of the sentence. Because 'the gifts' are plural, we use the plural helping verb sono. Literally, this means 'The anniversary gifts were pleasing to her.'
Why is 'She' translated as Le instead of Lei?
Since piacere means 'to be pleasing to', we have to state to whom the gifts were pleasing. We use the indirect object pronoun Le, which means 'to her'. If you used the subject pronoun Lei, the sentence would mean that she was pleasing to the gifts!
Why does the past participle end in -i (piaciuti)?
When building a past tense with the helping verb essere, the ending of the past participle has to match the subject. The subject here is i regali, which is a masculine plural noun. Therefore, piaciuto changes to its masculine plural form, piaciuti.
Why use per for the anniversary gifts?
When talking about gifts given for a specific occasion, Italian uses the preposition per (for) to indicate the purpose or event. i regali per l'anniversario translates nicely to 'the gifts for the anniversary'.

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