Breakdown of Tutti gli attori mi sono piaciuti per aver recitato bene.
essere
to be
gli
the
avere
to have
bene
well
per
for / in order to / because of
tutto
all the / whole
mi
to me
piacere
to please / to like
l'attore
actor
recitare
to act (perform)
Questions & Answers about Tutti gli attori mi sono piaciuti per aver recitato bene.
Why do we use aver recitato instead of a normal past tense like hanno recitato?
This is an implicit causal clause. When you want to express the reason for something, and the subject of both actions is the same (in this case, the actors), you can use per + the past infinitive (avere or essere + past participle). It translates literally to 'for having acted'.
Why is it aver instead of avere?
Why does the sentence use mi sono piaciuti instead of mi ha piaciuto?
As a quick refresher, the verb piacere works backward compared to English. The literal meaning here is 'All the actors were pleasing to me.' Because the actors (tutti gli attori) are the grammatical subject doing the pleasing, the verb takes the plural form (sono), and the past participle must agree with the masculine plural subject (piaciuti).
Could I use this per aver structure if I was the one who acted well, while the actors were just watching me?
No, you cannot. You can only use the implicit per + past infinitive structure when the subject of both actions is exactly the same. Since the actors are the subject of the main clause, they must also be the ones who acted well. If the subjects were different, you would need an explicit clause using perché (because) and a regular conjugated verb.
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