21 The verb GUSTAR: “to like”

A different kind of verb

The verb “gustar” is another -ar ending verb, but it conjugates differently than regular verbs in that it doesn’t use the conjugation pattern “-o, -as, -a, -amos, -áis, -an” in the expected manner. This is because the verb “gustar” literally means “to be pleasing” to someone. So instead of having a direct translation for “I like the book”, the structure in Spanish would be “to me is pleasing the book”, which of course sounds strange in English; perhaps less so if we said “the book is pleasing to me”.

Me	gusta	el libro
To me	is pleasing	the book
	The book is pleasing to me

To phrase another way, when you want to say the equivalent of:

Someone

likes

something

The sentence structure in Spanish will look like this:

To someone

is pleasing

something

For practical purposes, there are two verb endings of “gustar”:

gusta: for one thing or an action (verb) that someone likes to do

gustan: for two or more things that someone likes

Examples with GUSTAR

Let’s compare literal translations and how it more likely would be expressed in English. In the following examples, the singular form “gusta” is used because a verb follows.

Me	gusta	nadar (verb)
To me	is pleasing	to swim
	I like to swim

(Note: in English the verb after “like” is often expressed in the “-ing” form: “swimming”)

Another example:

Te	gusta	mirar televisión (verb)
To you	is pleasing	to watch TV
	You like to watch TV.

The singular form “gusta” is also used when we like just one thing:

Les	gusta	su clase de español (1 class)
To them	is pleasing	their Spanish class
	They like their Spanish class.

Again, “gusta” because a reference is made to just one university:

Nos	gusta	la universidad (1 university)
To us	is pleasing	the university
	We like the university.

However, when what we like is plural—in this case “classes”—then the plural form “gustan” is used:

Me	gustan	todas mis clases (classes, plural)
To me	are pleasing	all of my classes
	I like all of my classes.

Below, plural “gustan” is used because the reference is made to Mondays in general. Also, notice the position of “no” appearing before the pronoun “le” to negate an idea.

No le	gustan	los lunes (Mondays, plural)
To her	are not pleasing	Mondays
	She doesn’t like Mondays.

And again, the plural form “gustan” is used because the reference is to “mountains”:

¿Te	gustan	las montañas? (plural mountains)
To you	are pleasing	the mountains?
	Do you like the mountains?

If a person’s name is used then we need to add “a” (to) in front of the person’s name because we are expressing “something is pleasing to John”. The pronoun “le” is still used:

A John le	gusta	trabajar en la mañana.
To John	is pleasing	to work in the morning
	John likes to work in the morning.

The same idea (adding “a”) applies when we refer to someone by their title:

A la profesora le	gusta	enseñar
To the professor	is pleasing	to teach
	The professor likes to teach.

The following table summarizes what we need “to express likes” in Spanish:

Gustar

Indirect object pronouns	I.Obj. prounouns (Spanish)	gustar ending: 1 thing or verb	gustar ending: two or more things	How it really sounds in English:
to me	me	gusta	gustan	I like
to you	te	gusta	gustan	you like (tú)
to him	le	gusta	gustan	he likes
to her	le	gusta	gustan	she likes
to you	le	gusta	gustan	you like (Ud.)
to us	nos	gusta	gustan	we like
to you (fam.pl/Spain)	os	gusta	gustan	you like (plural-Spain)
to them (m)	les	gusta	gustan	they like
to them (f)	les	gusta	gustan	they like (f)
to you (pl)	les	gusta	gustan	you like (Uds.)

¿Cómo se dice…?:

Try to express theses sentences in Spanish before looking at the answers that follow.

1. I like to work at home.
2. They like study at night.
3. We don’t like the party.
4. Does Juan like the books?
5. María likes to dance.
6. We like dogs! (perros = dogs)
7. I like cats. (gatos = cats)
8. You don’t like to travel? (tú form)

Traducciones:

1. Me gusta trabajar en casa.
2. Les gusta estudiar por la noche.
3. No nos gusta la fiesta.
4. ¿A Juan le gustan los libros?
5. A María le gusta bailar.
6. ¡Nos gustan los perros!
7. Me gustan los gatos.
8. ¿No te gusta viajar?