Gli piace guardare film storici.

English Translation

He enjoys watching historical films.

Ciao a tutti,

“Gli piace guardare film storici.”
I’m wondering why it’s not “piacciono” as it’s more than one film?

1 Like

I read this as “It pleases him to watch historical films” or “To him it is pleasing to watch …” so the verb ending relates to “it”. (It is that old coconut of “piacere” meaning to please rather than to like).

More than happy to be corrected, nel frattempo Auguri! :raised_hand_with_fingers_splayed:

2 Likes
English Translation

He enjoys watching historical films.

Perhaps because piace is modifying guardare and not film? I note that if I feed these into online translators, he likes historical films translates as gli piacciono i film storici. But he likes to watch historical films translates as gli piace guardare film storici. But I don’t know enough Italian yet to understand why. Or why it is i film storici in the first example case and film storici in the second.

2 Likes

The important thing to rembember is that the thing that is liked is the subject of the Italian sentence. Here it is “guardare film storici”, so it must be in the singular. When somebody likes the films directly, they are in the plural, and the verb also.

Other things aside, I would have used an article: “i film storici”. I don’t think that can ever be wrong.

3 Likes

Hai ragione Morbrorper. And as our club friend Emanuela explains, it depends on the verb used; also it is correct to say eg “colleziono/guardo spesso film storici”.

2 Likes