Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Verb GUSTAR For Expressing Likes Dislikes PRINT
The Verb GUSTAR For Expressing Likes Dislikes PRINT
There are many other verbs that have the same construction as 'gustar' such as 'doler', 'faltar',
'encantar' and many more. In this lesson you'll learn to use he verb 'gustar', the indirect object
pronouns and the use of prepositional phrases to emphasize or clarify the indirect object
pronoun. After this lesson you'll be ready to talk about the things you like or enjoy and to ask
about other people about their likes and dislikes.
Me gusta el fútbol: Me (indirect object pronoun for 'yo') gusta (verb) fútbol (subject).
As you can see the way the sentences are created in Spanish is totally different from English.
(Yo) me
(Tú) te
(Él, Ella, Usted) le
(Nosotros) nos
(Vosotros) os
(Ellos, Ellas, Ustedes) les
After choosing the right indirect object pronoun (according to the person that likes the thing) it is
time to conjugate the verb.
When speaking about things we like, there are only two possibilities: 'gusta' or 'gustan'. This is
because the verb is conjugated according to the subject, and the subject in this case is the thing
we like, so we'll use the third person singular or plural depending on whether the thing that “is
pleasing to us” is singular or plural.
Also, we sometimes use prepositional phrases in order to clarify who likes the thing (because, for
instance ,'le' could refer to él, ella or usted).
A mí
A tí
A él / ella / usted
A nosotros-as
A vosotros-as
A ellos/ellas/ustedes
Also, after the 'A' you could just mention the name of the person:
A mi madre
A Luis
A los estudiantes
Apart from clarifying the indirect object pronoun, it can also be used to emphasize the person
that likes the thing.
There are other verbs that work the same way as 'gustar':