Download OtHow to Use Gustar (and Other Backwards Verbs) - Spanish 2 A

How to Use Gustar at a Glance
me
nos
te
os
le
les
+ gustar + subject (thing that is pleasing)
For example:
Me gusta la pizza.
Te gustan las galletas.
Nos gustan los huevos.
Start sentence with a + subject pronoun or proper name for clarity or emphasis:
A ella le gustan películas.
A Marco le gustan videojuegos.
A mí me gusta Pepsi.
OtHow to Use Gustar (and Other Backwards Verbs)
by Steve Fortna
Full Lesson
At a Glance
Spanish sentences generally use the same order and sentence structure as English sentences. For example:
Spanish:
Yo como pizza.
English:
I eat pizza.
Here both sentences start with a subject, move on to a verb, and finish off with an object.
But this isn't always the case. Certain Spanish verbs are "backwards" verbs. Backwards verbs make us tweak
the meaning and change the order of the sentence. Gustar is the most common of these verbs.
How to Use Gustar explained in depth
How would you translate this sentence:
I like pizza.
If you look up "to like" in the dictionary, you'll probably be told to use gustar. This might prompt you to translate
the sentence:
Yo gusto pizza.
But that's not the correct translation even though gustar is the appropriate verb to use in this situation. While it's
not wrong to say that gustar means "to like," it's not exactly true either. It's more accurate to say
that gustar means "to be pleasing." Knowing that, you can see that you can't really translate "I like pizza" word
for word. Instead you'll need to first change the sentence to something like:
Pizza is pleasing to me.
The meaning hasn't changed, but you're expressing it a different way. Notice that what used to be the object
(pizza) is now the subject of the sentence, and what used to be the subject (I) is now an object (me).
So how do we translate "Pizza is pleasing to me"? Well, we still need to make another change before we can
translate. Gustar is a backwards verb so gustar sentences read backwards: the subject (the thing that is
pleasing) comes at the end, the form of gustar comes in front of that that, and the sentence starts with an object
pronoun (which refers to the person being pleased). Therefore instead of "Pizza is pleasing to me" we should
translate:
To me is pleasing pizza.
So how do we do that in Spanish? Follow this formula:
IOP (of person being pleased) + gustar + subject (thing that is pleasing)
See also: Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns
What's an IOP? IOP stands for "indirect object pronoun." You'll learn more about IOPs later but for right now
refer to these charts:
English:
Spanish:
to me
to us
me
nos
to you
to you
te
os
le
les
to him/her to them
Put it all together and here's what we get:
original:
I like pizza.
↓
re-worded:
Pizza is pleasing to me.
↓
backwards:
To me is pleasing pizza.
↓
translated:
Me gusta pizza.
Here are some more examples:
Te gusta pizza.
You like pizza.
(Pizza is pleasing to you.)
Nos gusta pizza.
We like pizza.
(Pizza is pleasing to us.)
Le gusta pizza.
She likes pizza.
(Pizza is pleasing to her.)
Les gusta pizza.
They like pizza.
(Pizza is pleasing to them.)
Note: To say "I like it" simply omit the subject altogether: Me gusta.
Notice how the verb gusta doesn't change in any of the examples above. That's because the subject "pizza"
doesn't change either.
What if you like more than one thing? Now we need to conjugate gustar differently. We need the plural
form, gustan, since we now have a plural subject. For example:
Me gustan tacos.
I like tacos.
(Tacos are pleasing to me.)
Nos gustan huevos.
We like eggs.
(Eggs are pleasing to us.)
Te gustan galletas.
You like cookies.
(Cookies are pleasing to you.)
Les gustan papas fritas.
They like French fries.
(French fries are pleasing to them.)
Keep in mind that we're conjugating gustar to agree with the plural subjects at the end of the sentence
(tacos, galletas, huevos, and papas fritas). The objects (me, te, nos, and les) don't affect our verb conjugation
even though they're at the beginning of the sentence.
The vast majority of the time, you'll use either gusta (if one thing is liked) or gustan (for more than one thing). It's
rare that you would need gustas or gustamos and there are other, better ways of conveying that meaning.
See below.
Note: It's appropriate to say con mucho gusto("with pleasure") when meeting someone.
To Disgust / Gusto
If all this gustar stuff is confusing, it may be helpful to think of the opposite of gustar, disgustar. While "to gust"
never made its way into English, its opposite, "to disgust," did:
Me disgustan anchoas.
Anchovies disgust me.
Another English expression that might help is "with gusto," which means "with enthusiam."
Ambiguity with Le and Les
If you use me, te, nos, or os as your indirect object pronoun, the meaning of the sentence should be quite clear.
However, if you use le or les, it's not readily apparent who you're talking about. For instance, how would you
translate this sentence?
Le gustan libros.
It could be translated "He likes books," "She likes books," or even "You (Ud.) like books." To clear up that
confusion, Spanish speakers will often add some context to the sentence by adding a and a noun:
A él le gustan libros.
He likes books.
(Books are pleasing to him.)
A ella le gustan películas.
She likes movies.
(Movies are pleasing to her.)
A Ud. le gustan las canciones.
You like the songs.
(The songs are pleasing to you.)
It may seem redundant to include both a él and le in the same sentence since they mean the same thing, but it
happens regularly in Spanish. Even if we don't need to, we always use an indirect object pronoun with gustar.
A Cookie Monster le gustan mucho las galletas.
In a similar way, if you need to include someone's name in the sentence, you'll start with a followed by their
name, and you'll still use the indirect object pronoun:
A Elena le gustan zapatos.
Elena likes shoes.
(Shoes are pleasing to Elena.)
A Marco le gustan videojuegos.
Marcos likes video games.
(Video games are pleasing to Marcos.)
A Rodrigo y Felipe les gusta su escuela.
Rodrigo and Felipe like their school.
(Their school is pleasing to Rodrigo and Felipe.)
A Indiana Jones no le gustan los serpientes.
Remember that the a is necessary because even though Elena, Marco, Rodrigo and Felipe are at the beginning
of the sentence, they're the objects of the sentence, not the subjects. We need to say "To Elena," "To Marco,"
and "To Rodrigo and Felipe."
We can also use a where it would otherwise be unnecessary for emphasis:
Te gusta Coca Cola. A mí me gusta Pepsi.
You like Cocal Cola. Me, I like Pepsi.
Here, even though it's redundant,a mí has been added to emphasize "my" opinion.
Other Backwards Verbs
While we're on the subject of gustar, there are a number of other verbs which work similarly. The following verbs
all take an indirect object pronoun and they usually come in front of the subject:
aburrir (to be boring)
hacer falta (to be lacking)
agradar (to be pleasing)
importar (to be important)
bastar (to be sufficient)
interesar (to be interesting)
disgustar (to be disgusting)
molestar (to be a bother)
doler (to be painful)
parecer (to appear to be)
encantar (to be enchanting)
picar (to be itchy)
faltar (to be lacking)
placer (to be pleasing to)
fascinar (to be fascinating)
quedar (to be left over)