LA GRAM ÁTICA EN ACCIÓN 2 THE VERB GUSTAR, ¿POR QUÉ?, PORQUE, AND DE ¿Por qué? Porque es tu cumplea ños. A e llos les gustan las fiestas. Me gusta mucho la torta de chocolate.

THE VERB GUSTAR Use gustar to say what people like (what pleases them). If what you like is singular, use gusta: Me gusta la pizza. If what you like is plural, use gustan: Me gustan las frutas. ¿Te gusta el helado? Sí, me gusta el helado. ¿Te gustan las verduras? No, no me gustan las verduras. Begin with ¿qué? to ask what someone likes. ¿Qué te gusta? 2

me gusta(n) I like te gusta(n) you (tú) like le gusta(n) you (usted) like he/she/it likes nos gusta(n) we like os gusta(n) you (vosotros) like les gusta(n) you (ustedes) like they like 3 OBJECT PRONOUNS WITH GUSTAR Notice that le can be you (usted), he, she or it, and les can be you (ustedes) plural or they. So you might need to ask who by adding a quién before le or a quiénes before les. ¿A qui én le gustan las frutas? ¿A qui énes les gustan las frutas? Think: ___ pleases me; ___ pleases you; ___ pleases him; ___ pleases us; ___ pleases them

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES FOR CLARIFICATION 4 To emphasize or clarify who likes something, put a prepositional phrase at the beginning of the sentence. A Cole y a mí nos gusta la pizza. A Jordan y a Kaitlyn les gustan los carros. A Dean le gustan los deportes. (to clarify) *A mí me gustan los deportes. (to emphasize) A ellas (think pointing to some girls) les gustan los deportes. *Mí must always be written with an accent when its the object of a preposition so that it is not confused with the possesive word mi, which means my in English. Ti does not have an accent-- A ti te gustan la pizza y el helado, ¿no?

¿POR QUÉ? AND PORQUE 5 To ask why, use ¿Por qué? (interrogatives have accents) It is two separate words, literally meaning for what? (think: for what reason = why) To tell because, use porque It is written together and means for that. (think: for that reason/so that/because

6 Use de alone when saying where someone is from, when giving the actual name of the person who owns something, or saying a type of thing you are describing, like a science fiction movie or an adventure book. Ana es de Texas. Es el libro de Ana. Es un libro de terror.

7 The word del is just a contraction of de + el, and should be written as del. So, Del Taco means of the taco. Were they thinking we would assume (home) of the taco, (restaurant) of the taco? Who knows? Use de followed by the definite article (e l, la, los, or las) to show possession when not giving the owners name. Be sure to match with number and gender of the owner, not with the item owned. For example, in the sentence: El helado de las muchachas es delicioso, the las is because of the muchachas who own the helado. Son los libros del profesor says theyre the books of the professor because he is el profesor.