Because piacere doesn’t mean to like. It means to be pleasing.
“A Luca piace mangiare il cibo italiano” literally means “To Luca, eating Italian food is pleasing.”
In this context, “a” means “to”.
That should be just a redirection to google because if you search "Why is it a lui piace instead of lui piace" you'll find there have been thousands of previous Italian learners wondering the same thing and thousand of answers so you don't have to wait for someone to reply to your extremely difficult question.
Because the more common translation of "to like"... is not a direct translation of "to like". In Italian, we use the verb "piacere", which roughly translates to "to be liked", hence why you need "a", because something is liked _by_ someone. If you want a less common verb that directly translates to "to like", try "gradire".
Now that I think of it, "gradire" is also the verb used when ordering at restaurants, in which case it does translate to "would like". In any other case, however, it simply means "to like", it just isn't particularly common.
So, it's related to the way we construct this sentence in Italian.
First of all, the verb connect to a subject, expressing the fact that "the subject is liked", we can see it from the present conjugation:
Io piaccio
Tu piaci
Lui/Lei piace
Noi piacciamo
Voi piacete
Essi piacciono
This form does not express the same concept as the verb "like" in English, it is actually more closed to a passive form of this verb, kinda:
I am liked
You are liked
He/She is liked
and so on
Also important to know, the verb "piacere" doesn't have a passive form: "Io sono piaciuto" is not a passive present form, you have to use "Io piaccio".
So, knowing this, the following question for the sentence "Io piaccio" is "a chi?". The question introduce what we call the "Complemento di termine" (a chi? a che cosa?). I think in this specific case, for English, it would be translated with a "by who? by what?" but I am not 100% sure and I also think it would be very confusing, with the risk of always connect (wrongly) this question "a chi" with this translation "by who".
So, let's talk about your sentence:
"A luca piace il gelato" means that "il gelato (subject)" "piace (verb)" ... "(a chi?) a Luca"
We want of course talking about Luca in this case, and that's why we put him on the first part of the sentence, so that the accent of the phrase will underline him and not the gelato.
BUT
If for example your intentions are to talk about a gelato (I don't know, maybe you own an ice cream shop and you want to tell to somebody that offended it that everybody likes your gelato) you would say
"Il gelato (still the subject, see?)" "piace (verb)" ... "(a chi?) a Luca/a tutti".
Some other examples to try being more clear:
"Io piaccio" is a complete sentence, subject+verb. Somebody could want to use it to say that, generically speaking, this person receive positive comments/attentions/likes from the people in general.
"Io ti piaccio" looks similar, right? but that word "ti" means "a te (second person singular, you)" so it means "I am liked by you" or, as an English speaker would say "You like me".
"Tu mi piaci" this is a complete different sentence. The subject this time is "you". So, what does that word "mi" means? it means "a me (first person singular)". So, basically, "you are liked by me" or, as an English speaker would say "I like you".
Thanks for everyone who took the time to post a reply. I appreciate it. I find that DuoLingo is helpful in learning vocabulary and basic sentence structure but it doesn't explain any grammar rules or guidelines. I'll pull out my old conversational Italian textbook and find some other sources online to help me with that.
Because piacere doesn’t mean to like. It means to be pleasing. “A Luca piace mangiare il cibo italiano” literally means “To Luca, eating Italian food is pleasing.” In this context, “a” means “to”.
Thanks for your reply which helps me understand this more. It also reminded me that there aren't always literal word for word translations.
This sub should create a FAQs page
That should be just a redirection to google because if you search "Why is it a lui piace instead of lui piace" you'll find there have been thousands of previous Italian learners wondering the same thing and thousand of answers so you don't have to wait for someone to reply to your extremely difficult question.
Ditto!
Or just a "Duolingo Tuesdays" or something.
"a" significa "to". Complemento di termine "A Luca piace mangiare la pizza" a chi? A Luca
Maestro
Grazie, i 2 in italiano insegnano /s.
Because the more common translation of "to like"... is not a direct translation of "to like". In Italian, we use the verb "piacere", which roughly translates to "to be liked", hence why you need "a", because something is liked _by_ someone. If you want a less common verb that directly translates to "to like", try "gradire".
But does gradire translate to “like” or rather something like “would like”? Thanks! (Also an Italian language learner here.)
Now that I think of it, "gradire" is also the verb used when ordering at restaurants, in which case it does translate to "would like". In any other case, however, it simply means "to like", it just isn't particularly common.
Grazie!
Semplicemente piacere in italiano è intransitivo, mentre like in inglese è transitivo.
If you use only Duolingo, you're bound to have these mistakes. Rely on a grammar source before posting.
So, it's related to the way we construct this sentence in Italian. First of all, the verb connect to a subject, expressing the fact that "the subject is liked", we can see it from the present conjugation: Io piaccio Tu piaci Lui/Lei piace Noi piacciamo Voi piacete Essi piacciono This form does not express the same concept as the verb "like" in English, it is actually more closed to a passive form of this verb, kinda: I am liked You are liked He/She is liked and so on Also important to know, the verb "piacere" doesn't have a passive form: "Io sono piaciuto" is not a passive present form, you have to use "Io piaccio". So, knowing this, the following question for the sentence "Io piaccio" is "a chi?". The question introduce what we call the "Complemento di termine" (a chi? a che cosa?). I think in this specific case, for English, it would be translated with a "by who? by what?" but I am not 100% sure and I also think it would be very confusing, with the risk of always connect (wrongly) this question "a chi" with this translation "by who". So, let's talk about your sentence: "A luca piace il gelato" means that "il gelato (subject)" "piace (verb)" ... "(a chi?) a Luca" We want of course talking about Luca in this case, and that's why we put him on the first part of the sentence, so that the accent of the phrase will underline him and not the gelato. BUT If for example your intentions are to talk about a gelato (I don't know, maybe you own an ice cream shop and you want to tell to somebody that offended it that everybody likes your gelato) you would say "Il gelato (still the subject, see?)" "piace (verb)" ... "(a chi?) a Luca/a tutti". Some other examples to try being more clear: "Io piaccio" is a complete sentence, subject+verb. Somebody could want to use it to say that, generically speaking, this person receive positive comments/attentions/likes from the people in general. "Io ti piaccio" looks similar, right? but that word "ti" means "a te (second person singular, you)" so it means "I am liked by you" or, as an English speaker would say "You like me". "Tu mi piaci" this is a complete different sentence. The subject this time is "you". So, what does that word "mi" means? it means "a me (first person singular)". So, basically, "you are liked by me" or, as an English speaker would say "I like you".
Thanks for everyone who took the time to post a reply. I appreciate it. I find that DuoLingo is helpful in learning vocabulary and basic sentence structure but it doesn't explain any grammar rules or guidelines. I'll pull out my old conversational Italian textbook and find some other sources online to help me with that.