In previous lessons, you learned how to express your likes and dislikes using the verb gustar with an infinitive. In this lesson, you will see other verbs that work like gustar and will use them both with infinitives and with things or ideas. As you have seen, when you use gustar with an infinitive, you always use gusta—the third person singular of the verb; what changes is the indirect object pronoun—the me, te, le, nos, os, or les, depending on whom is being pleased or displeased. Quickly review the examples below to refresh your memory on the use of gustar with infinitives.
 Me gusta nadar en el mar. |
Foto: David Gil CC BY-SA 2.0 |
| Nos gusta correr en el parque. |
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| A Felipe le gusta escuchar la música clásica. |
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| A Daniela y a Pedro les gusta bailar merengue. |
When you use the other verbs that function like gustar with an infinitive, you will follow exactly the same pattern—the indirect object pronoun, then the verb, then an infinitive. Below you will find several examples, which based on your knowledge of gustar, should be relatively familiar to you.
| Me encanta pasar tiempo con mis amigos. |
Foto: Politécnico Grancolombiano Departamento de Comunicaciones CC BY-NC 2.0 |
| A Raúl le fascina aprender sobre otras culturas. |
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| A Samuel y a Vicente les da miedo viajar por avión. |
In addition to using these verbs with an infinitive, you can also use them with nouns—things or places for example. When you do this, you need to remember two things. First, just like with an infinitive, you use the indirect object pronoun according to the person or people being pleased/fascinated/bothered. Secondly, you need to remember the verb ending. If the thing that is pleasing is singular, you will use the third person singular ending of the verb; if it is plural, you will use the third person plural ending of the verb. Look at the examples below in order to see how these verbs are used with nouns.
| singular | plural |
|---|---|
Me gusta la rosa.  |
Me gustan las rosas.  |
When the thing that is pleasing to you (one rose in this case) is singular, you use gusta—the third person singular. When what is pleasing you is plural (two or more roses), you use gustan—third person plural. Here are several more examples of how these verbs are used with nouns.
Practice these verbs with the flashcards below
Candela Citations
- Lesson 9 - Vocabulario - verbos como gustar - flashcards. Authored by: Ana Burke. Provided by: Quizlet. Located at: https://quizlet.com/100842265/verbos-como-gustar-flash-cards/. License: CC BY: Attribution
- Lesson 9: Estructuras gramaticales . Authored by: Open Learning Initiative. Provided by: Carnegie Mellon. Located at: https://oli.cmu.edu/jcourse/lms/students/syllabus.do?section=037856eb80020ca6007833f93f06cd13. Project: Spanish1. License: CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
