8. Aprendamos el verbo GUSTAR

Leamos:

Let’s read. Read the dialogue with a partner. Pay attention to the pronunciation of the vowels and consonants. After reading for pronunciation you will re-read for comprehension.

Dos amigos see each other in the plaza (the main square in town). They stop to chat. (charlar)

Emma: Hola Carlos, ¿Cómo estás? (as she leans in to give him dos besitos—2 little kisses)

Carlos: Hola amiga, muy bien; ¿y tú?

Emma: Muy bien gracias. ¿Cómo son tus clases en la universidad?

Carlos: ¡Ay Emma!, son buenas; me gustan mis clases. ¿Y tú, no eres una estudiante de medicina?

Emma: Sí, amigo. Mis clases son difíciles pero buenas también. Me gusta estudiar medicina. Mis profesores son inteligentes y simpáticos. Uno es de Argentina. Él es fantástico e interesante. Es famoso en Argentina por curar problemas cardiacos.

Carlos: ¡Qué chévere! Mi profesora es abogada y maestra. ¡Es increíble! Estudio mucho en su clase porque a ella le gustan los exámenes.

Emma: ¡Ah! Veo a mi profesor. Te presento a mi profesor. Doctor Vargas, buenos días.

Dr. Vargas: Muy buenos días, Emma. ¿Cómo estás?

Emma: Bien gracias Doctor, ¿Y usted?

Dr. Vargas: Muy bien, Emma.

Emma: Doctor Vargas, este (this) es mi amigo Carlos.

Carlos: Mucho gusto, Doctor Vargas.

Dr. Vargas: Es un placer. ¿Eres tú un estudiante en la universidad también?

Carlos: Sí, estudio para ser abogado

Dr. Vargas: ¡Qué bueno! Es una buena e importante profesión. Gusto en saludarles, yo voy al hospital. Hasta luego.

Emma y Carlos: Adiós, Doctor.

Carlos: Es el cumpleaños de mi mamá. Es un día especial. Ella tiene sesenta años.

Emma: Tu mamá es muy inteligente y es una bella persona. Además (besides), ella es famosa por sus enchiladas.

Carlos: Gracias, Emma. Es muy especial a mí. A ella le gusta la torta de chocolate. Es por eso que estoy aquí. Yo compro una torta para mi madre.

Emma: Te acompaño a casa para cantar.
Feliz cumpleaños a ti,
Feliz cumpleaños a ti,
Feliz cumpleaños querida mamá,
Feliz cumpleaños a ti.

Carlos: ¡Tú cantas como Shakira!

Emma: Carlos, tú eres muy cómico.

Carlos: ¡Compremos la torta!

Añadamos:

Let’s add a little more vocabulary to help you understand what you re-read above.

mi	my
tu	your
su	his/hers/ your
cumpleaños	birthday
tener	to have
gustar	to like or to be pleasing
ahora	now
compro	I buy or am buying
cantas	You sing

As you may have noticed above there were a few new elements. They dealt with the verb gustar (to like). In this next section, you will learn how to use it.

In our last dialogue above, Carlos and Emma were chatting when Carlos says:

“¡A ella, le gusta la tarta de chocolate!”

This literally means: to her (referencing his mother) chocolate cake is pleasing to her.

So, you are thinking that the above is a typo because there are two occurrences of the phrase “to her”. The first part of “a ella,” just refers to the mother—to heràit gives more emphasis. One could say, a mi mamáàto my mother directly but you would still need what is called an indirect object pronoun in Spanish to communicate correctly; this is to say to be grammatically correct. In order to communicate the concept of “to someone” in Spanish, we use an Indirect Object Pronoun, which in this case was “le”.

The pronouns that tell TO WHOM or FOR WHOM something happens are the Indirect Object Pronouns (IOP) = Pronombres de Objeto Indirecto. Note: These pronouns go BEFORE gustar or any other verb, when needed, when it is conjugated.

Singular

• ME: To me, for me.
• TE: To you, for you.
• LE: To her/him/you, for her/him/you.

Plural

• NOS: To us, for us.
• OS: To y’all, for y’all. (corresponding to the vosotros/vosotras subject used in Spain only.)
• LES: To you all, for you all, to them, for them.

The Indirect Object Pronouns (IOP) are always used with the verb gustar. Do you remember “mucho gusto” from the beginning of this unit? It is an expression meaning it is nice to meet you or it is a pleasure to meet you. As you know from the PowerPoint you viewed, GUSTAR means to be pleasing. Although in English, we say, “I like, you like, he likes…”, in Spanish the concept is reversed in a way to indicate something or someone is pleasing to a person. That is exactly what the purpose of the Indirect Object Pronoun is within the context of gustaràto indicate to whom something is pleasing.

Repasemos:

Let’s review by filling in what you know already from studying this concept at home.

Gustar means _________________________________.

If one thing pleases you use:______________________.

If one or more activity (VERBS) pleases you, use:______________________.

If more than one thing pleases you, use:______________________.

How to form sentences (declarative, exclamatory or interrogative) using the structure gustar:

• Generally, the placement is :
• Indirect object pronoun + gusta + the one thing that is pleasing.

+ Declarative sentences:

Me gusta el español.   Spanish pleases me. à I like Spanish.

Me gusta mucho la clase. The class pleases me a lot. à I like the class a lot.

+ Exclamatory sentences:

¡Nos gusta el español! Spanish pleases us! à We like Spanish!

¡Nos gusta mucho la clase! The class pleases us a lot! à We like the class a lot!

+ Interrogative sentences:

¿Te gusta el español?    Does Spanish please you? à Do you like Spanish?

¿Te gusta mucho la clase? Does the class please you a lot? à Do you like the class a lot?

Also the grammatical structure gustar as we studied before, has an option in case we would like to emphasize who is pleased. The emphasis is not a required element in the structures that work like gustar but rather serve as a clarification for the third persons or simply emphasis for the first and second persons. The elements that are required however, are the Indirect Object Pronoun and the correct verb form of gustar. Let’s analyze this concept in the following sentences:

(A mí,) me gusta la clase.

• The “a mí” can be included for more emphasis or clarification but is not required. Notice the diacritic stress: Mí The diacritic stress distinguishes between mi (my) and mí (me).

(A ti,) te gusta la clase

• a tiàto you.

(A él,) le gusta la clase.

(A ella,) le gusta la clase.

(A usted,) le gusta la clase

• a él à to him
• a ella à to her
• a usted à to you (formal)
• In this case we are not only emphasizing, we are clarifying who is the person that is pleased: él, ella or usted.

(A nosotros/as,) nos gusta la clase

• a nosotros/as à to us.

(A vosotros/as,) os gusta la clase

• a vosotros/as à to you all.

(A ellos,) les gusta la clase.

(A ellas,) les gusta la clase.

(A ustedes,) les gusta la clase.

• a ellos à to them
• a ellas à to them
• a ustedes à to you all
• Again, we are not only emphasizing, we are clarifying who are the people that are pleased: ellos, ellas or ustedes.

What happens when we like not only one class (la clase), but we like several classes (las clases)?

If more than one thing is pleasing, use GUSTAN.

Me gustan las clases.

The classes are pleasing to meàI like the classes.

It is very important that you keep in mind that the verbs are conjugated to agree with the subject of the sentence. In this case, “las clases”, the subject, is at the end of the sentence yet it still is the subject with which the verb needs to agree. “Clases” would correspond with “ellas” so you would use the 3rd person plural form of gustar to agree with “clases”.

Me gustan las clases. gustan corresponds with the third person plural.

NOTE: If you do not like something, simply write “No” before me gusta(n) and the object(s).

No me gusta el color de la casa.

No me gustan las personas antipáticas (unkind).

As you know Spanish is a phonetic language, but also it is an emphatic language. When we answer a question in the negative form, in general the “no” is repeated:

¿Te gusta el color de la casa? No, no me gusta el color de la casa.

¿Te gustan las personas antipáticas? No, no me gustan las personas antipáticas.

Let’s try the next exercise: We are giving you a tip that the word “taco” is masculine. How do you say, “you like the taco?”

The taco is pleasing to meàI like the taco ________________________vs

Tacos are pleasing to meàI like tacos _____________________________

Practiquemos:

Let’s practice with some likes. Read for pronunciation and take note of the definition.

1. Me gusta el perro à The dog is pleasing to me.àI like the dog.
2. Me gustan las pizzas à The pizzas are pleasing to me.àI like the pizzas.
3. No me gustan los libros à The books are not pleasing to me.àI don’t like books.
4. ¡Me gustan los gatitos! à The kittens are pleasing to me! à I like the kittens.
5. ¿Me gusta la lasaña? à Is lasagna pleasing to me? à Do I like lasagna?
   

Let’s see the next example: (A nosotros,) nos gusta bailar y cantar.

We like to dance and sing = Singing and dancing are pleasing to us.

In the sentence, we are talking about two activities that we like to do. In this case we are not talking about things. Bailar y cantar are actions. The actions remain in the infinitive form, in other words they are unconjugated verbs. No one is doing the action, we are only making a reference to the action. When we are talking about likes or dislikes related to actions, we use “gusta”, never “ gustan”. We can talk about one action or several actions, but we always are going to use “gusta”. The reason is because we are talking about actions (actions as an entity—singular)

We like the action of singing = nos gusta la acción de cantar..

We like the action of singing and the action of dancing = nos gusta la acción de cantar y la acción de bailar.

We are talking about different actions, but each one of the actions are singular = La acción = GUSTA.

All verbs in infinitive in English or in Spanish, are actions. To avoid redundancy we refer directly to the name of the action that we like: Nos gusta cantar, nos gusta cantar y bailar, nos gusta cantar, bailar y reír.

Practiquemos:

Let’s practice with some actions that we like. Again, read aloud for pronunciation and take note of the definition.

(A mí,) Me gusta hablar en español.

• à Speaking in Spanish is pleasing to me.
• à I like speaking in Spanish.

(A ti,) te gusta nadar.

• à Swimming is pleasing to you.
• à You like swimming.

(A ella,) le gusta nadar y hablar en español.

• à Swimming and speaking in Spanish are pleasing to her.
• à She likes swimming and speaking in Spanish.

It might be a little difficult to do these two activities together but now you can see how to form statements using gustar and actions/verbs.

(A nosotros,) nos gustan las plantas.

• à The plants are pleasing to us.
• à We like the plants.

(A vosotros,) os gusta el gato.

• à The cat is pleasing to you.
• à You like the cat.

(A ellos,) les gusta caminar y tomar el sol.

• à Walking and taking in the sun (sunbathing) are pleasing to them.
• à They like walking and taking in the sun (sunbathing.)

(A ustedes,) les gustan las empanadas.

• à The empanadas (a delicious food similar to a turnover) are pleasing to you.
• à You like the empanadas.

At this stage, you should be able to ask the question to a friend, ¿Que te gusta? (What is pleasing to you?). How do you think you would ask this same question of your teacher? Remember to use the polite forms. Check the chart above for the indirect object pronoun that corresponds to the “usted” form.

There are more verbs that follow the structure gustar in terms of agreement with the item or items that one finds interesting, boring, fascinating, lacking or displeasing. In the future we will study them.

TAREA:

Write 5 questions about likes and dislikes that you will ask your teacher and 5 questions for your friend. Remember to use the polite forms with your teacher and the informal forms with your friend. Bring this assignment with you to class to submit as homework and to use as part of our discussions.