Breakdown of Mi sono piaciuti gli smalti, ne ho comprati parecchi.
essere
to be
gli
the
avere
to have
comprare
to buy
mi
to me
piacere
to please / to like
ne
of it / of them / some (pronoun)
parecchio
several / quite a few
lo smalto
the nail polish
Questions & Answers about Mi sono piaciuti gli smalti, ne ho comprati parecchi.
Why do we use parecchi here instead of parecchio?
In this sentence, parecchi acts as an indefinite pronoun standing in for the noun smalti (nail polishes). Because it means "several [of them]", it must agree in gender and number with the noun it replaces, which is masculine and plural.
What is the word ne doing in the second half of the sentence?
Why does comprati end in -i when it uses the auxiliary verb avere (ho)?
Normally, past participles don't change their endings when paired with avere. However, when you use the partitive pronoun ne with a quantity like parecchi, the past participle must agree with the gender and number of the noun ne replaces. Since ne replaces smalti (masculine plural), comprato becomes comprati.
Why is the first verb sono piaciuti rather than "ho piaciuto"?
The verb piacere works backwards compared to English. Instead of saying "I liked the nail polishes," Italians literally say "The nail polishes were pleasing to me." Since the subject doing the pleasing is plural (gli smalti), you must use the plural auxiliary sono and the plural past participle piaciuti.
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