If you try something new and find yourself enjoying it more and more despite initially thinking you wouldn’t, you might say that you’ve “developed a taste” or “taken a liking” to it in English. In Italian, there’s a similar expression: prenderci gusto.
prenderci gusto
to develop a taste / take a liking
Prendere is an -ERE verb that means to take, to get or to pick. However, in the case of this idiom, it must be combined with the ubiquitous particle ci, transforming it into the pronominal verb prenderci. Pronominal verbs feature in many Italian idioms, so try not to overthink it – just remember that prendere gusto without the ci is incorrect.
In literal contexts, gusto refers to the taste of food or drink, but in this idiom, it’s being used figuratively to describe the pleasure, satisfaction or enjoyment one experiences when doing an activity.
All’inizio non mi piaceva studiare l’italiano ma poi ci ho preso gusto.
At first I didn’t like studying Italian but then I developed a taste for it.
Non ti piace sciare? Vedrai che ci prenderai gusto!
You don’t like skiing? You’ll get a taste for it, you’ll see!
Heather Broster is a graduate with honours in linguistics from the University of Western Ontario. She is an aspiring polyglot, proficient in English and Italian, as well as Japanese, Welsh, and French to varying degrees of fluency. Originally from Toronto, Heather has resided in various countries, notably Italy for a period of six years. Her primary focus lies in the fields of language acquisition, education, and bilingual instruction.
