Learn the key pattern to talk about your hobbies
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| 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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