Nombre: _____________________________________________
No me gusta la gramática,
pero me gusta comer chocolate
GUSTA:
one of the most common—yet maddening—verbs in the Spanish language. The object of the
liking is the subject of the sentence, and the person that does the liking is the indirect object.
See what I mean?
In Spanish we say Me gusta el chocolate when we mean I like chocolate—but what you are
truly saying with Me gusta el chocolate is that Chocolate is pleasing to me. Chocolate, in that
case, is the subject of the sentence.
Because of this, we never say Me gusto el chocolate or Te gustas el chocolate—this would be
saying that I am pleasing to myself the chocolate or you are pleasing to yourself the
chocolate . While you may—in fact—like yourself, that is certainly not what you set out to say.
And that silly sentence makes as little sense in Spanish as it does in English.
The verb “gustar” usually occurs in only two forms: gusta and gustan —depending on whether
there is one thing/activity or two things which are pleasing. SO—when you are expressing in
Spanish that you like something, you must use the singular form gusta when you like one thing,
and the plural form gustan when you like several things.
¿ME? ¿TE? ¿NOS? ¿LE? The little pronoun that goes in front (usually) of the verb gusta
indicates to whom chocolate is pleasing—in other words—who likes chocolate.
Me gusta el chocolate ... I like chocolate.
¿Te gusta mi Ferrari? ... Do you like my Ferrari?
Le gusta el color rojo ... He likes the color red.
Nos gusta la comida de cafetería .... We like the cafeteria food.
A Juan y a Eva les gusta la pizza ... Pizza is pleasing to them (A Juan y Eva can
be added to clarify).
If there is more than one thing which is pleasing to whomever, then the verb needs to be plural,
gustan —not because there are two people who like something, but because there are two things
which are pleasing to someone. The number of things that are pleasing in no way affects the
pronoun.
Me gustan el chocolate y el café. ... I like coffee and chocolate.
¿Te gustan los gatos? ... Do you like cats?
If you want to say that you like a certain activity, you must use the infinitive form of the verb to
express the activity you like. This is just like English, if you think about it. (Notice that the
singular form gusta is used to refer to an action.)
Me gusta cantar en el baño. ... I like to sing in the bathroom.
A los profesores les gusta hablar mucho. ... Teachers like to talk a lot.
Nos gusta comer perros calientes en los partidos de beisbol.--We like to eat hot
dogs at baseball games.
One last tricky thing: Although you must use gustan in the plural when the thing liked is plural,
talking about activities you like is different. You must use the singular gusta whether you are
expressing that you like one activity or several .
Me gusta cantar y bailar la música latinoamericana.
Los sábados, me gusta dormir tarde y ver la tele.
A. Fill in a singular or plural form of gusta, according to the guidelines you just read.
1. A los perros les _______________ dormir en el sol.
2. A los estudiantes no les ______________ la tarea.
3. A mí me __________________ los chicos altos.
4. A Arnold Schwartzenegger le _______________ las películas de acción.
5. A nosotros nos _________________ cantar en el carro.
6. ¿Te _________________ los Backstreet Boys?
7. Me __________________ ver películas y leer libros.
8. A Elena y a Esteban les __________________ las clases de inglés e historia.
9. A mi tío no le _______________________ los carros pequeños.
10. Al dueño no le __________________ arreglar el lavamanos.
Para los genios del español:
A los padres no les ________________ cuando los chicos vuelven a casa tarde.
B. Fill in the appropriate pronoun in front of the verb.
1. A Pepe y a Papo _________ gusta comer sin pagar.
2. A mí ________ gustan los Miatas rojos.
3. A nosotros _________ gusta mirar los partidos de futbol los viernes.
4. ¿A tí _________ gustan las manzanas? A mí no __________ gustan mucho.
5. A Ricardo __________ gustan las chicas altas, pero a Esteban y Pedro ________ gustan
las chicas inteligentes.
6. ¿A ustedes _________ gusta la mantequilla de cacahuate?
Más gramatica
You’ll notice that most of the sentences above start with “A” in front of what appears to be the
subject of the sentence. (It’s not the subject, remember? The subject of the sentence is the
thing or activity that is pleasing.) This structure is used to clarify or emphasize to whom these
things or activities are pleasing. This is not needed in English because expressing likes and
dislikes is more straightforward. However, we sometimes clarify or emphasize with our tone of
voice.
You don’t like chocolate? I do!
No te gusta el chocolate? ¡A mí me gusta!
Remember, too, that me, te, le, nos, and les are actually pronouns, and sometimes the pronoun
is not enough to indicate exactly who we mean.
Roberto likes chocolate, but Adrián likes coffee.
A Roberto le gusta el chocolate, pero a Adrián le gusta el café.
Without the clarifying clauses, the verbs are exactly the same—in this case, the “A Roberto” and
“A Adrián” are essential to the meaning of the sentence.
Why the “A”—why not just “Roberto” or “Adrián”? Remember that Robert and Adrián are not the
subjects, but the indirect objects of that sentence: to whom is chocolate or coffee pleasing? In
Spanish, any time a person or animal is a direct or indirect object, you must put a “ personal A”
in front of that person or animal
C. Translate the following sentences into Spanish. Don’t forget the “A” clauses that help
clarify .
1. I like apples and bananas. ____________________________________________________
2. We like Spanish—¡it’s obvious! _________________________________________________
3. ¿Do you like pizza with eggs? _________________________________________________
4. They like to write poems. _____________________________________________________
5. They like the new pool. ______________________________________________________
6. We don’t like to do homework. ________________________________________________
7. The girls don’t like to fish. ____________________________________________________
8. The crazy cat doesn’t like tuna. ________________________________________________
Un poquito más
Everything that you have just learned about gusta can be applied to a variety of verbs that follow
the same patterns. Here are but a few examples. Add these to your vocab list!
encantar (to like a lot)
molestar (to bother)
gustaría (would like)
encantaría (would really like)
importar (to matter)
interesar (to be interesting)
interesan.
aburrir (to bore)
doler (to ache, hurt)
Me encantan las flores. A Olivia le encanta pasear en bicicleta.
¿Te molesta cuando tengo la radio en la estación de rap?
Nos gustaría cantar en el coro. ¿Te gustarían mis papas fritas?
Me encantaría visitar a mi abuela.
No me importa el color de los carros. Me importa tener un carro.
A Javier le interesan mucho los deportes. A nosotros no nos
Me aburren las telenovelas.
Cuando corro, me duelen los pies y las rodillas.
1. Are fish interesting to you? ___________________________________________________
2. Ernesto’s head hurts. ________________________________________________________
3. It bothers me when my room is disorganized. _____________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
4. Grades don’t matter to me. ___________________________________________________
5. Papo and Pepe would like to eat without paying. __________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
6. I would love a big pizza right now. ______________________________________________
7. We really like to sleep late on Saturdays. ________________________________________
8. Stupid movies bore us. ______________________________________________________
Me gusta el chocolate--¡es obvio! A todos les gusta el
chocolate.
Si nopractice
te gusta
chocolate, tu
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ã NOTE: There are more tutorials
and more
forelGUSTA-type
verbs
my teacher
webpage.
extraño. A las maestras no les gusta dar págames, pero
les gusta recibir chocolate por los págames. ¿Te
interesa saber como hacer chocolate? Me encantaría
tener una tienda de chocolate. A mí no me importan las
calorías. ¿A tí te importan? Te molestaría darme tu
chocolate? ¿Te molesta cuando hablo tanto del