Gustar and similar verbs (Gustar y verbos parecidos) ¿Te gusta mi coche? Sí, me gusta mucho.

Gustar = to be pleasing gusta gustan el chocolate los camarones Me Te Gustar is used to express preferences, likes, and dislikes; however, gustar means “to be pleasing,” and is constructed very differently from the English “to like.” The verb gustar is used exclusively with indirect object pronouns Me Te Le Nos Les gusta gustan el chocolate los camarones

I like it. It’s pleasing to me. Gustar = to be pleasing In Spanish, the thing or things that we like are expressed as being “pleasing to us.” . . . where “it” is the direct object. In English, we say . . . I like it. In Spanish, “it” becomes the subject of the sentence and we say instead . . . It’s pleasing to me. “I” is then expressed as the indirect object phrase “to me.”

Let’s start by talking about something we all like. I like Spanish. Following the format on the previous slide, we would say . . . Spanish is pleasing to me. In Spanish, this would literally be . . . El español me gusta. gusta me. But, of course, in Spanish, pronouns must be placed before conjugated verbs. Now, it so happens that, by convention, the subject (in this case El español) is generally placed at the end of the sentence with this type of construction.

I like Spanish. Spanish is pleasing to me. Me gusta me gusta. el español. El español It turns out, then, that the sentence in Spanish is exactly the reverse of that in English, in its sense, and also in its word order.

Me Te Le Nos Os gusta el español. Les To express that others like Spanish, only the object pronoun needs to change, since Spanish remains the subject in all the sentences. Me Te Le Nos Os Les gusta el español.

Since most of the things or people that please us are expressed in third person, the two forms of gustar that are used most commonly are gusta and gustan gusta gustan Nos gusta el flan que hace la abuela. We like the flan that grandma makes. No le gustan los huevos. She doesn’t like eggs.

Me gusta leer, jugar fútbol, y viajar. When gustar is used with one or more infinitives, only the third person singular is used. Me gusta leer. Me gusta leer, jugar fútbol, y viajar.

Gustar is used with indirect object pronouns Me gusta ese restaurante. I like that restaurant. ¿Te gusta el té helado? Do you like iced tea? Le gustan mucho las zanahorias. He likes carrots a lot. No nos gusta el yogur. We don’t like yogurt. Les gusta cenar en casa. They like to eat dinner at home.

aburrir to bore fascinar to fascinate quedar to be left over / to remain

These other verbs function like gustar Me aburre comer solo. Eating alone bores me. Les encanta comer fuera. They love to eat out. ¿Les faltan servilletas? Do you all need some napkins? Nos fascina la cocina francesa. French cuisine fascinates us.

These other verbs function like gustar Nos interesan los pingüinos. We’re interested in penguins. Me molestan algunos clientes. Some customers annoy me. Nos parece caro este vino. This wine seems expensive to us. ¿Te queda suficiente dinero para pagar la cuenta? Do you have enough money left to pay the bill?

(for clarification or emphasis) Again, the verbs gustar, encantar, etc. are used exclusively with indirect object pronouns These are mandatory me te le nos os les (a mí) (a ti) (a usted) (a él) (a ella) (a nosotros) (a vosotros) (a ustedes) (a ellos) (a ellas) The prepositional forms are optional (for clarification or emphasis)

All the prepositional forms can be used to emphasize the object pronoun form. Juan doesn’t like beans but I do. A Juan no le gustan los frijoles, pero sí me gustan. a m í Notice that because Juan and I were stressed in the above sentence in English, we added the prepositional forms a Juan and a mí in Spanish to reflect that stress.

Les encantan las bananas. Since the third-person pronouns le and les can be ambiguous, they sometimes require prepositional forms for clarification. Les encantan las bananas. Since les can represent a number of different people, we may need to add a prepositional form to avoid confusion. A ellos les encantan las bananas. A ellas les encantan las bananas. A Luis y a Marta les encantan las bananas. A Uds. les encantan las bananas.

Ramón describe los gustos de varias personas. ¿Qué dice él? 1. A mí / gustar/ la ropa de Eddie Bauer A mí me gusta la ropa de Eddie Bauer 2. A nosotros / importar / buenas notas. A nosotros nos importan buenas notas. 3. A ti / faltar / el lápiz. A ti te falta el lápiz.

4. A Uds./ interesar / resolver problemas A Uds. les interesa resolver problemas. 5. A Susana / no / encantar / los videojuegos A Susana no le encantan los videojuegos 6. A Paco y a Sonia / gustar / la música latina A Paco y a Sonia les gusta la música latina.

FIN

The verb gustar is used exclusively with indirect object pronouns me nos te os le les le les