24 “Gustar” and similar verbs

• Certain verbs such as gustar (to please) are almost always used with the indirect object pronouns, me, te, le, nos, os, and les. The Spanish sentence that corresponds to That pleases you is Eso me gusta. Here, eso is the subject and me is the object. Changing the subject to libro produces:  El libro me gusta.  The book pleases me./I like the book.

    If the subject changes from libro to libros, the verb also changes from singular to plural.

Los libros me gustan.  The books please me./I like the books.

• In the Spanish gustar construction, the usual word order is often reversed, with the subject following the verb.

Me gusta eso. Me gusta el libro.

Me gustan los libros.

• The object pronouns used with gustar are the indirect object pronouns. Frequently, as in other sentences that contain indirect objects, a prepositional phrase (a + noun/pronoun) is used to clarify or emphasise the object pronoun. This phrase may follow the verb or precede it.

A ti te gusta el libro.  The book pleases you./You like the book.

A nosotros nos gusta esquiar.  Skiing pleases us./We like skiing.

Los perros no le gustan a Lupe.  Dogs don’t please Lupe./Lupe doesn’t like dogs.

• Note that when an action is the subject, Spanish uses the infinitive (esquiar) whereas English uses the present participle (skiing). The verb, in this case, is always singular (gusta).

• There are some important differences in meaning with the verbs disgustar and gustar. Disgustar is not as emphatic as English to disgust; the verbs to annoy or to upset express its meaning more accurately. On the other hand, gustar expresses a strongly positive reaction – to such an extent that gustar is often avoided in some dialects of Spanish when talking about one’s feelings toward other people. The expressions caer bien and caer mal are more commonly used in these dialects to refer to people. These phrases follow the same structural pattern as gustar: the person causing the reaction is the subject, and the person reacting is the indirect object.

Ese hombre me cae bien, pero esos tipos de allí me caen muy mal.

That man over there strikes me positively, but those guys over there strike me all wrong.

En serio, Diego no me cae bien.

Really, I just don’t like Diego.

• Other verbs which are frequently used in the same way as gustar are: