Breakdown of L'attore mi è piaciuto per aver risposto a ogni domanda.
essere
to be
avere
to have
la domanda
question
per
for / in order to / because of
Questions & Answers about L'attore mi è piaciuto per aver risposto a ogni domanda.
Why do we use aver risposto instead of just rispondere?
This is the past infinitive (infinito passato), formed with the infinitive of the helper verb (avere or essere) plus the past participle. We use per aver risposto (for having answered) to show that the answering happened before you liked the actor. If you used per rispondere, it would mean 'in order to answer', which changes the meaning completely.
Why does the sentence use mi è piaciuto instead of a literal translation of 'I liked'?
The verb piacere works backwards compared to English; it literally means 'to be pleasing to'. Here, L'attore is the grammatical subject, so the sentence literally means 'The actor was pleasing to me'. Because the actor is the subject doing the pleasing, we use the auxiliary verb essere (è) and the past participle piaciuto agrees with his masculine, singular form.
Why is there an a before ogni domanda?
In Italian, the verb rispondere requires the preposition a when you specify what or who you are answering. It helps to always think of this verb as 'to reply to'.
Could I say a tutte le domande instead of a ogni domanda?