Uses of “gustar”
We’ve spent quite a long time talking about reflexive verbs, so I’m now going to leave the subject alone for a while and briefly look at something that a lot of people tend to confuse with reflexives. This is the particular Spanish way expressing likes, loves and dislikes by saying that something “pleases”, “delights” or “displeases”.
For example, you are probably very familiar with the form “me gusta” and know that it means “I like”. “Gusta” is the third person singular form of the verb “gustar” to please – therefore the literal translation of “me gusta” is “it pleases me” or “he pleases me” or “she pleases me”. In other words, I like it, him or her.
This form is not reflexive, because it has nothing to do with anyone pleasing themselves. I suppose someone some time may want to say “me gusto” (I please myself – that is, I like myself) but this is not really what we’re talking about or would normally wish to say.
The form “me gusta” is simply a different way round from English of conveying a certain idea. The same thing happens with “me encanta” (literally – It delights me – I love it). Also included in this group of verbs are things like “me sorprende” (it surprises me), “me fastidia” (it annoys me), “me interesa” (it interests me) and so on.
To change the person who is pleased, or who likes, we do not conjugate these verbs in the usual way.
This is how we change “gustar”.
Me gusta I like (it pleases me) Te gusta You like it (it pleases you)
Le gusta He/she likes it (it pleases him/her)
Nos gusta We pleases us)
Os gusta You like it (plural) (it pleases you “lot”)
Les gusta They like it (it pleases them). like it (it
Notice that the object pronouns (they are actually indirect object pronouns, for those who wish to know) happen to be the same as the reflexive pronouns EXCEPT in the third person (“le” and “les” NOT “se”).
If more than one thing pleases us, then the verb changes to a plural. For example: “Me gustan las patatas fritas” (I like chips - they please me, the chips!) Actually “me encantan las patatas fritas” (chips delight me) and I’m feeling rather peckish so I think I’ll stop here and go and eat a big plate of them! I haven’t done this for a while, but if anyone would like to e-mail me their queries on this subject, I will try to answer them either directly or in the next article – I mean verbs, not chips.