FHUHS Spanish

Gustar is very often presented to Spanish students with the meaning “to like.” This even more frequently results in the misuse of gustar.

Quite simply, gustar does not mean “to like.” It means to be pleasing to.

The following will give a little background on the use of gustar

In the transition from Latin to the many Romance languages, a number of verbs arrived in “binary pairs.” Ie., a verbal concept and it’s opposite. For example:

• to assemble, to disassemble
• to agree, to disagree
• to appear, to disappear

In some cases, however, only one of the pair made it to the target language. In Spanish, both gustar and desgustar arrived relatively intact from Latin. However, only one of those made it to English: disgust.

If you think of how we use disgust in English, you’ll understand how we use gustar in Spanish. For example:

• Chewing gum disgusts me.
• Hatred disgusts me.

In each example, the thing which is disgusting is the subject of the verb, and “me” is the indirect object.

Though we didn’t get the verb “to gust” in English, you should be able to figure out what might be meant by:

• Apples gust me.
• Pizza gusts me.

This is exactly how gustar works in Spanish. The thing which is pleasing to the speaker is the subject of the verb, and the speaker is the indirect object:

• Me gustan las manzanas.
• Me gusta la pizza.

The me in the above examples is the indirect object. A literal translation of each might be “Apples are pleasing to me.” and, “Pizza is pleasing to me.” In each case, the thing which is pleasing, whether singular or plural, controls the form of the verb gustar, either singular or plural.

In general, you will only use gustar in the 3rd person, either singular or plural: gusta or gustan. Native speakers may use it in other ways, but the subtlety is probably too dangerous at this point and could result in you saying something entirely inappropriate—stick to the 3rd person.