GUSTARLE -
to be pleasing to someone.
GUSTAR is a problematic verb because it does not mean "LIKE."
It is used where we use "LIKE". The reason it
causes problems is that the grammatical subject and the object
are reversed because it means "to be pleasing."
I like money. -- Money is pleasing to me.
In Spanish: Me gusta el dinero.
Notice that the verb will only conjugate to the third person
singular and plural forms: GUSTA and GUSTAN
The pronoun in front will change to show the person.
Do you like horoscopes? Are horoscopes pleasing
to you? ¿Te gustan los horóscopos?
Do you like to read horoscopes? Is reading horoscopes
pleasing to you? ¿Te gusta leer los horóscopos?
If gustar is followed by a verb, it is always singular GUSTA.
If it is followed by a plural noun, it is GUSTAN.
Me gusta(n) Te gusta(n) Le gusta(n)
Nos gusta(n) os gusta(n) les gusta(n)
For more verbs that work like this, see the "Feelings"
page.
The GUSTAR shortcut (warning--does
not work with other verbs)
Take the sentence in English, and draw three vertical lines
through the sentence like this:
