In Spanish we use the verb “gustar” to talk about likes and preferences. “Gustar” is an important but also a particular verb in Spanish.

Let’s see.

“Gustar” is very different from “to like” in English.

In English, the subject in the sentence is the person (I, you, he/she/it, we, you, they) doing the action or the “liking”:

On the other hand, when we use the verb “gustar” in Spanish the subject in the sentence is the object, i. e., what we like (music, food, a book, a place).

So what we’re actually saying in Spanish is that something is pleasing to us:

“Gustar” takes an indirect object pronoun (me, te, le, nos, les) depending on who’s the person liking something:

We can omit “A mí”, “A ti” etc. Only use these if you want to emphasize who is doing the action.

but NOT the pronoun:

How to conjugate “gustar”?

We don’t conjugate “gustar” like other verbs since, again, the subject of the verb is the object (the thing or things I like). This means we only have “gusta” (singular) and “gustan” (plural):

How to use “gustar”:

If it’s an action we like (a verb) we don’t conjugate it. It stays in the infinitive (ending in -ar, -er and -ir):

Unlike English, if it’s a thing we like (a noun) we need to place the article: “el” (masculine singular) or “la” (feminine singular):

If we’re mentioning more than one thing we use the plural form “gustan” and the article: “los” (masculine plural) or “las” (feminine plural):

For the negative form of “gustar” we simply add “no” before its form in the sentence:

If we like something VERY MUCH we can say:

What about people?

In Spanish, if someone says “Me gusta Teresa” they’re actually saying they like Teresa in romantic terms (they like her physically or they feel attracted to her).

If there’s someone we like (as a friend) we say:

Notice that the expression “caer bien” functions in the same way as the verb “gustar”.  The subject is the person we like (Teresa, ellos), and the object is the person doing the liking (me). Here are some other verbs and expressions that work like “gustar” and “caer bien”:

Importar (to mind, to care about something)

Convenir (to suit someone)

Fascinar (to like a lot / to fascinate)

Interesar (to interest someone)

Molestar (to be bothered by something)

Dar asco (to be disgusted by something) 

Hacer falta (to miss someone / something emotionally) 

Faltar (to lack something)

Ready to test your knowledge with a “gustar” quiz? Here are two quizzes to get you going.

In this lesson, you saw the “gustar” conjugation and a brief explanation on how to use the verb “gustar”.  It’s really the opposite of English, instead of liking something in Spanish, it actually pleases us.  This is because the thing we like acts as the subject of the sentence, so when we conjugate “gustar” we either conjugate it for a singular thing we like (nos gusta el libro), or a plural thing we like (nos gustan los libros).  We also identified a few other “gustar” like verbs in this lesson, so you can practice these also.  Don’t confuse “gustar” with reflexive verbs.  If you haven’t studied Reflexive Verbs yet, then check them out.