Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

Let’s take a closer look at the conversation.
Do you remember how Giuseppe Mancini asks,
"What's your hobby?"
Qual è il tuo hobby?
Let's start with the word, hobby, "hobby." Hobby. Hobby.
Pronunciation note: the letter h in Italian is never pronounced.
In Italian, all nouns have grammatical gender and are either singular or plural. Hobby is masculine and singular — a fact which will determine the form of other words in the sentence.
Before hobby is il tuo, a phrase meaning "your." Il tuo.
Tuo means "your." Tuo. Tuo.
Tuo is masculine and singular to agree with hobby.
Before tuo is the article il. Think of it like "the" in English. Il. Il.
Il is also masculine and singular to agree with hobby.
Note: in this sentence, the article il does not have a corresponding English translation.
In Italian, possessive adjectives, like mio, "my," tuo, "your," and so forth, often pair with an article, like the il in il tuo.
Together, it's il tuo, a phrase for "your." Il tuo.
All together, il tuo hobby. "Your hobby." Il tuo hobby.
Moving to the start of the sentence, qual, literally meaning "which," in this context it translates as "what." Qual. Qual.
Note: qual is also masculine singular to agree with hobby.
Pronunciation note: qual is the shortened form of quale. When quale is followed by a word which starts with its same final vowel sound, e, it’s shortened to qual.
Next is è, "is," as in "what is..." È. È.
È is from the verb essere, meaning "to be." Essere.
All together, it's Qual è il tuo hobby? This literally means "Which is your hobby?" But it translates as "What's your hobby?"
Qual è il tuo hobby?
Let’s take a closer look at the response.
Do you remember how Adam Russo says,
"I like fishing."
Mi piace pescare.
First is mi piace, "I like." Mi piace.
Let's start with piace, "[it] is pleasant." Piace.
"It" is omitted, as it's understood from context.
Piace is from the verb piacere meaning "to be pleasant." Piacere.
Before piace is the pronoun mi, translating as "for me," in this context. Mi. Mi.
Together it's mi piace, "for me [it] is pleasant," but translates as "I like." Mi piace.
Next is pescare, literally "to fish," but it translates as "fishing." Pescare. Pescare.
All together it's Mi piace pescare. literally "for me [it] is pleasant to fish," but it translates as "I like fishing."
Mi piace pescare.
The pattern is
Mi piace ACTIVITY.
I like ACTIVITY.
Mi piace ACTIVITY.
To use this pattern, simply replace the {ACTIVITY} placeholder with an activity you like doing.
Note: the placeholder is a verb and must be placed in the infinitive, or, in other words, the dictionary form.
Imagine you like reading, leggere. Leggere. Leggere.
Say
"I like reading."
Ready?
Mi piace leggere.
"I like reading."
Mi piace leggere.

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