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

2. Gustar is a completely regular -ar verb in its conjugation.
Gustar = to be pleasing
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.”
Gustar is a completely regular -ar verb in its conjugation.
gusto
gustas
gusta
gustamos
gustáis
gustan

3. 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.”

4. 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 . . .
me gusta.
El español
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.

5. 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.

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

7. 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
gusto
gustas
gusta
gustamos
gustáis
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.

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

9. The verb gustar is used exclusively with indirect object pronounsme
nos te os le
les

10. 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.

11. Many other verbs function like gustar
These, too, are used with indirect object pronouns.
aburrir
to bore; to tire
encantar
to delight; to be extremely pleasing
faltar
to be lacking or needed
fascinar
to be fascinating
interesar
to be interesting
molestar
to be a bother or to annoy
parecer
to seem
quedar
to be left; to remain

12. Many 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.

13. Many 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?

14. 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:
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.

15. Do you like oranges or grapefruit best?
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.

16. (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)

17. 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 mí
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.

18. 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.

19. FIN