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

Gustar and Similar Verbs(Gustar y verbos parecidos)

¿Te gusta mi coche?

Sí, me gusta

mucho.

Gustar = to be pleasing

gustogustasgusta

gustamosgustáisgustan

Gustar is a completely regular -ar verb in its conjugation.

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.”

I like it.In English, we say . . .

In Spanish, “it” becomes the subject of the sentence and we say instead . . .

It’s pleasing to me.

Gustar = to be pleasingIn Spanish, the thing or things that we like are expressed as being “pleasing to us.”

. . . where “it” is the

direct object.

“I” is then expressed as the indirect object phrase “to me.”

I like Spanish.

Spanish is pleasing to me.

El español gusta me.But, of course, in Spanish, pronouns must be placed before conjugated verbs.

me gusta.In Spanish, this would literally be . . .

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.

Let’s start by talking about something we all like.

Following the format on the previous slide, we would say . . .

me gusta.El españolel español.

I like Spanish.

Spanish is pleasing to me.

Me gusta

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.

To express that others like Spanish, only the object pronoun needs to change, since Spanish remains the subject in all the sentences.

gusta el español.Me

like Spanish.I

TeLeNosOsLes

YouHeWeYou allThey likes Spanish.

gustogustasgusta

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

gustamosgustáisgustan

Nos gusta el flan que hace la abuela.

No le gustan los huevos.

We like the flan that grandma makes.

She doesn’t like eggs.

Of course, it is possible to use other forms. Gustas, for example is used frequently.

Me gustas (tú).You please me. (I like you.)

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.

The verb gustar is used exclusively with indirect object pronouns

metele

nososles

Me gusta ese restaurante.

Gustar is used with indirect object pronouns

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; to tireencantar to delight; to be extremely

pleasingfaltar to be lacking or neededfascinar to be fascinatinginteresar to be interestingmolestar to be a bother or to annoyparecer to seemquedar to be left; to remain

Many other verbs function like gustarThese, too, are used with indirect object pronouns.

Me aburre comer solo.Eating alone bores me.

French cuisine fascinates us.

Les encanta comer fuera.They love to eat out.

Nos fascina la cocina francesa.

Do you all need some napkins?¿Les faltan servilletas?

Many other verbs function like gustar

¿Te queda suficiente dinero para pagar la cuenta?

This wine seems expensive to us.Nos parece caro este vino.

Do you have enough money left to pay the bill?

We’re interested in penguins.Nos interesan los pingüinos.

Some customers annoy me.Me molestan algunos clientes.

Many other verbs function like gustar

When we like something a lot (mucho) or more (más) than something else, mucho and más immediately follow the verb gustar:

Me gusta mucho comer.I really like to eat.

A different word order would convey a different meaning:

Me gusta comer mucho.I like to eat a lot of food.

When we like something a lot (mucho) or more (más) than something else, mucho and más immediately follow the verb gustar:

¿Te gustan más las naranjas o las toronjas?Do you like oranges or grapefruit best?

Me gustan más las naranjas.I like oranges best.

Again, the verbs gustar, encantar, etc. are used exclusively with indirect object pronouns

mete

le

nosos

les

(a mí)(a ti)

(a usted)(a él)(a ella)

(a nosotros)(a vosotros)

(a ustedes)(a ellos)(a ellas)

These are mandatory

(for clarification or emphasis)

The prepositional forms are optional

All the prepositional forms can be used to emphasize the object pronoun form.

no le gustan los frijoles, pero sí me gustan.

doesn’t like beans but

A Juan a mí

Juan I do.

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 les can represent a number of different people, we may

need to add a prepositional form to avoid confusion.

Since the third-person pronouns le and les can be ambiguous, they sometimes require prepositional forms for clarification.

A ellos les encantan las bananas.A ellas les encantan las bananas.

A Uds. les encantan las bananas.

A Luis y a Marta les encantan las bananas.

FIN