Severn Spanish

Gustar I: Nouns

 

 

Review

Before beginning this section, you may want to review Gustar I: Infinitives to brush up on the basics of the verb gustar. You also need to be familiar with the subject pronouns and with the conjugations of regular -ar verbs.

 

Understanding subjects and objects of verbs

This is a quick introduction to subjects and objects in English.

A verb is a word that expresses an action or state of being. Examples include “to run,” “to be,” “to grow,” and “to cook.” Verbs are called infinitives when they are not conjugated (in Spanish, infinitives end in -ar, -er, or -ir).

The subject of a verb is the person or thing who is performing the action of the verb. In the sentence, “I run,” “I” is the subject. Likewise, in the sentence, “The boys walk to the store and back,” “boys” is the subject because it is the boys who are performing the action of the verb “walk.” Subject pronouns are pronouns used to replace nouns that act as the subjects of a sentence. The Spanish subject pronouns are yo, tú, él, ella, usted, nosotros, nosotras, vosotros, vosotras, ellos, ellas, ustedes.

The object of a verb may be a new concept. An object of a verb is the person or thing who receives the action of the verb. In the sentence, “I like tomatoes,” “tomatoes” is the object because it is the thing being liked. To figure out what the object of a verb is (and some verbs don’t have objects at all), identify the subject and the verb and ask yourself this question: “(subject) (verb) who or what?” From the example above, the question would be, “I like who or what?” The answer to this question, the “what,” is “tomatoes.” For now, we will use pronouns as objects: me, you, him, her, us, them (these are the object pronouns in English).

To recap:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breaking down gustar

Let’s look at an old gustar sentence, remembering what you now know about subject pronouns and verb conjugations.

Me gusta comer.

This sentence looks crazy. Many people would try to say “Yo gusto comer” — which makes sense, if you think gustar means “to like.” The thing is, it does not. Gustar literally means “to please,” so saying “Yo gusto comer” means “I please eating” — totally backwards from what you want to say, which is “Eating pleases me.” That’s the trick to working with gustar: think about it backwards.

The sentence, “Me gusta comer,” literally means “Eating pleases me.” That’s roughly equivalent to “I like eating,” which is why so many people think gustar means “to like.” But thinking of gustar as “to like” just makes using it ten times more confusing. Let’s take one more look at our sentence and really break it down into parts:

Me gusta comer.

In this sentence, the subject is not “I,” and if you think about that, it sort of makes sense. Yo is nowhere to be found, and the verb is not conjugated to fit yo anyway. Thinking of gustar as “to please,” ask yourself, “What is doing the pleasing in this sentence?” “Eating” is doing the pleasing — eating pleases me. That means that “eating” is the subject of the sentence, and that is why gustar is conjugated as gusta — because infinitives are treated as “it” when conjugating verbs.

Next, ask yourself, “Who or what is being pleased?” “Me” is the one being pleased, so “me” is the object of the verb. That’s why you use me instead of yo — me is the Spanish object pronoun for “me,” while yo is the Spanish subject pronoun for “I.”

Now you are probably wondering why the words are in such a funny order. Why does the me come before the verb, and why does the subject come after the verb? In Spanish, object pronouns, with very few exceptions, come before their verbs. In Spanish, subjects can come before or after their verbs, and with gustar it is typical to place the subject after the verb.

 

Gustar with nouns

Now that you understand how gustar works, you are ready for the next step: using gustar with nouns. First, take a look at the Spanish object pronouns that you will use with gustar:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember that these are the objects of your verb: don’t try to conjugate gustar to fit these! Instead, conjugate gustar to match the thing that is doing the pleasing.

The most frequent conjugations of gustar are gusta and gustan, because these are the ones that are used for nouns: a singular thing uses gusta, and a plural thing, or more than one thing, uses gustan.

The best way to figure this out is to practice.

Examples:

I like books.

First, rewrite the sentence using “to please” instead of “to like.” Books please me.

Next, identify the subject. Remember that the subject is the thing doing the pleasing, so in this case, it will be “books.” This means that in Spanish, the subject is los libros.

Third, conjugate gustar to fit the subject. Los libros is plural, so gustar will be in the ellos/ellas/Uds. form — gustan.

Fourth, identify the object and choose the right object pronoun. Who or what is being pleased? “Me.” Therefore, the object pronoun is me.

Finally, put everything in the right order. Remember that the object pronoun comes before the verb, and that it is conventional to put the subject after the verb. Me gustan los libros.

They like pizza.

Rewrite: Pizza pleases them.

Subject: What is doing the pleasing? “Pizza.” In Spanish, la pizza.

Conjugate gustar: La pizza is singular, so gustar becomes gusta.

Object pronoun: Who or what is being pleased? “Them.” In Spanish, les.

Final sentence: Les gusta la pizza.

 

What if the person being pleased has a name that you want to include? Remember “a mí” and “a ti”? Watch this:

Marta likes chicken.

Rewrite: Chicken pleases Marta.

Subject: What is doing the pleasing? “Chicken.” In Spanish, el pollo.

Conjugate gustar: El pollo is singular, so gustar becomes gusta.

Object pronoun: Who or what is being pleased? “Marta.” The object pronoun for “her” is le.

Final sentence: A Marta le gusta el pollo.

 

Marco and Manuel like grapes.

Rewrite: Grapes please Marco and Manuel.

Subject: Who or what is doing the pleasing? “Grapes.” In Spanish, las uvas.

Conjugate gustar: Las uvas is plural, so gustar becomes gustan.

Object pronoun: Who or what is being pleased? “Marco and Manuel.” The object pronoun for “them” is les.

Final sentence: A Marco y Manuel les gustan las uvas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Practice

Try it out yourself. Remember the five steps and the true meaning of gustar.