Current Events > Can any Italian speakers answer this?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Why is it al gatto instead of il gatto? They havent explained this.



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Looks like it uses a dative form (like "Mir gefaellt" in German or "mne nravitsya" in Russian) or indirect object... form or whatever Italian has. And "al" is "a il" (to the).

Don't speak Italian just a guess!

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Piacere is a weird reflexive verb

You're basically saying The food is pleasing to the cat but it appears literally as The cat likes the food

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Oh yeah, and here's the Wiktionary page that explains usage - https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/piacere#Italian

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Thanks for all the responses! They make a ton of sense.

I just wish Duolingo would have explained it though. I like the app but it is def not perfect. Especially not when introducing new stuff which doesnt follow the usual pattern - there is poor explanation for it.

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Le' Purrrrrrr
Le' Purrr
Meow
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https://youtu.be/J6dFEtb06nw?t=12

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BalanceLost posted...

Thanks for all the responses! They make a ton of sense.

I just wish Duolingo would have explained it though. I like the app but it is def not perfect. Especially not when introducing new stuff which doesnt follow the usual pattern - there is poor explanation for it.

Italian just has kind of a weird sentence structure. It's all grammatically consistent within itself but often translated to English into phrases that don't make sense when translated back.

For example: you can say "I am" = "io sono" or just "sono" with the io portion being implied from the conjugated essere.

Then you can say "I have" = "io ho" or just "ho" with the io implied from the conjugated avere.

Then you want to learn how to say "I am hungry" and you're told that it's "ho fame" without any further explanation. Then your English brain kicks in a few days later and you want to say (I am) (hungry) so you say "sono fame" which roughly translates to "I am hunger" as opposed to "ho fame" literally "I have hunger"

So the dad joke doesn't really work in italian.

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Dunno how to explain it in English, since it's not the same, but Il gatto means The cat, and Al gatto means To the cat

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BalanceLost posted...

Thanks for all the responses! They make a ton of sense.

I just wish Duolingo would have explained it though. I like the app but it is def not perfect. Especially not when introducing new stuff which doesnt follow the usual pattern - there is poor explanation for it.

There's a lot of info they omit from the mobile app. If you want actual introductions to lessons you need to use the desktop website.
Or use Babbel lol

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