El verbo gustar (needs edit)

 

As you already know, the verb gustar is used in order to communicate what you like or dislike. With the verb gustar, you will use the indirect object pronouns that you just learned in the previous section. These pronouns are placed before gustar. In this section, you will see how to use the verb with infinitives, so that you can talk about what you like (or don’t like) to do.

 

gustar – to like
singular plural
1a me gusta nos gusta
2a te gusta os gusta
3a le gusta les gusta

 

As you can see, what changes is the indirect object pronoun, and not the ending of the verb. You will note that the ending of the verb is –a—third person singular—all the way through. While we translate the verb gustar as “to like,” it literally means to be pleasing. What pleases you (which will be shown by the infinitive that follows gustar) is actually the subject of the sentence; the person who is pleased is expressed by the indirect object pronoun. So, for example, if you want to say that you like to dance, you will say, Me gusta bailar. Dancing pleases you! Let’s look at some examples of how to use gustar with an infinitive.

indirect object pronoun + gusta + infinitive
Play AudioMe gusta

leer y esquiar.

A man reading the newspaper

Foto: Monica Arellano-Ongpin CC BY 2.0
Play Audio ¿Te gusta nadar?
Play AudioNos gusta

ver películas románticas.

A boy and girl watching a movie

Foto: Eduardo Otubo CC BY 2.0
Play Audio ¿A ustedes les gusta nadar?
Play Audio A Daniela no le gusta

jugar al tenis.

A woman playing tennis.

Foto: robbiesaurus CC BY-SA 2.0
Play Audio ¿A Felipe y Rosa les gusta ir a la playa?
Play Audio No, no les gusta

ir a la playa.

A beach in Costa Rica

Foto: Mike Vondran CC BY 2.0
Play AudioLes gusta ir a las montañas.

When you are using the third person indirect object pronoun le or les (just as you learned in the previous section), it is necessary to clarify about whom you are talking with a…. Once you have clarified that, you no longer have to keep repeating the names. The difference you might have noted is that when you are doing this with gustar the a and name of the person generally come before the rest of the sentence, rather than at the end.

Click the video below and watch the tutorial to help you improve your understanding of the verb gustar.

 

 

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