Gustar: liking things in Spanish, backwards
Vocalyra teaching team · Last updated:
Spanish does not say I like the music. It says the music is pleasing to me: me gusta la música. Once you flip the sentence around, gustar and its whole family become logical.
Gusta or gustan
The verb agrees with the thing liked, not with the person. One thing or an action takes gusta: me gusta el café, me gusta nadar. Several things take gustan: me gustan los libros. The person appears as an indirect object pronoun: me, te, le, nos, os, les.
Clarifying who likes
Because le and les are ambiguous, Spanish adds a phrase with a: a María le gusta el té, a ellos les gusta viajar. For emphasis with me and te, use a mí and a ti: a mí me gusta más el invierno. The a phrase never replaces the pronoun; le gusta cannot drop the le.
| Person | Singular thing or action | Plural things |
|---|---|---|
| I | me gusta el cine | me gustan las películas |
| you | te gusta bailar | te gustan los bailes |
| he, she, you formal | le gusta la sopa | le gustan las sopas |
| we | nos gusta viajar | nos gustan los viajes |
| they, you all | les gusta el frío | les gustan las montañas |
The gustar family
Many common verbs work the same way: encantar (love), interesar (interest), molestar (bother), doler (hurt, me duele la cabeza), faltar (be missing, me falta dinero) and quedar (have left, me quedan dos euros). The most frequent learner error is conjugating gustar like a normal verb: yo gusto means I am pleasing, not I like.
To say what you liked in the past, the same structure moves tense: me gustó la película for one viewing, me gustaban las clases for an ongoing period. Negation sits before the pronoun: no me gusta el ruido. And to ask someone, flip the pronoun: ¿te gusta el picante? A mí también and a mí tampoco are the natural ways to agree (me too, me neither). Because the thing liked is the subject, Spanish speakers often drop it once it is known: ¿te gusta? needs no noun at all.
Quick self-check
Choose: Me (gusta / gustan) los chocolates.
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gustan
Choose: A Elena (le / les) gusta el arte.
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le
Choose: (Yo gusto / Me gusta) cocinar.
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Me gusta
Choose: Nos (duele / duelen) los pies.
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duelen