Me gustan las plantas, me gustas tú
For Spanish learners: untangling the verb "gustar"
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One of my main “learning” memories of Spanish is walking around Xalapa in my first month or so in the city, trying to figure out how the verb “gustar” worked. It felt like I was carving out neural pathways with blood, sweat, and tears. It was a struggle.
Me gusta, me gustas, te gusto, le gustan, les gusto…what the hell with all these seemingly tiny changes that signified incredibly different meanings? This is the verb you use to talk about liking someone like that, so I did not want to get it wrong and either give someone the wrong idea… or miss an opportunity!
Because I was a language teacher for many years and a translator for many more, I’ve got a knack (I think) for understanding at least some of the details of language in English and Spanish. I’m not a teacher or doing much translating work now, but I still love language. So, dear subscribers, I’m going to use it to help you in (most of) your quests to get better at Spanish. I’ll even include songs! (A few of you are already fluent Spanish speakers, I know…if you are, feel free to use it to help a friend).
The Lesson
The main thing to remember with this verb is that you (nor anyone else) are not the one doing the liking. I repeat: when you say me gusta, the liking is not an action that you perform; the liking is what that the person or thing does to you.
So while, as a translator, I’d translate “Me gustan las plantas” as “I like plants,” this is not a literal translation. The literal translation is, “Plants are pleasing to me.”
It doesn’t help that “plants” is the subject but it’s at the end of the phrase (“me” is an indirect object pronoun); phrases like this in Spanish are often grammatically “backwards” in English. Remember too that since the thing(s) that’s pleasing to you is the subject, that’s what you base the verb conjugation on.
Anyway, there’s the kind of technical stuff. Let’s practice a little bit.
Examples
I don’t know about y’all, but I personally just can’t get enough of myself. Needless to say, usually when we talk about liking something, we’re talking about our own opinions. So let’s start with that.
Me gustan las películas. —> Movies are pleasing to me. (Better translation: I like movies.) Since we’re talking about more than one thing (movies), the verb “gustar” needs reflect that.
Me gustas (tú). —> I like you (in that way…if you want a date, this is your chance!). “Tú” in this case is optional, because it’s implied in the verb form; there’s no way for there to be an “s” on the end of it if “tú” is not the subject.
Me gusta jugar cartas. —> I like to play cards. Less exciting, but you can use it as date suggestion, I guess. If what you’re talking about “being pleasing to you” is an activity, use the infinitive (base form) of the verb.
Now let’s practice with a few other indirect object pronouns!
¿Te gusta la cerveza? —> Do you like beer? This is actually a real sentence that I say a lot, because I really like beer, and I am always up for drinking beer with people that I like (well, “caer bien,” like as a friend).