Breakdown of Ceea ce mă interesează cel mai mult este arta.
fi
to be (sunt, ești, este, suntem, sunteți, sunt)
mult
a lot
mă
me (direct object) / myself
mai
more / still (adverb)
Questions & Answers about Ceea ce mă interesează cel mai mult este arta.
Why use ceea ce instead of just ce for 'what'?
In pseudo-cleft sentences like this ('What [X] is [Y]'), ceea ce literally translates to 'that which'. While you might hear native speakers use just ce in casual speech (Ce mă interesează...), ceea ce is the grammatically standard and expected way to build this structure in writing or careful speech to clearly highlight the focus.
Why does arta have the definite article -a at the end when the English translation just says 'art'?
In Romanian, general, abstract, or broad concepts (like art, science, or life) require the definite article when they act as the subject or focus of the sentence. Because you are talking about the broad concept of art, Romanian treats it as definite: arta.
Why is the accusative pronoun mă used here instead of the dative îmi, like we use with a plăcea (to like)?
The verb a interesa (to interest) takes a direct object in the accusative case, just like in English ('it interests me'). Verbs like a plăcea, on the other hand, take an indirect object in the dative case because they literally mean 'it is pleasing to me'. Therefore, we must use the accusative mă here.
Can you break down how cel mai mult works in this sentence?