Gostar

Gostar is how you say "to like" in Brazilian Portuguese, and it is one of the first verbs every learner needs — you want to talk about what you like from day one. The conjugation could not be simpler: it is a perfectly regular -ar verb with no stem changes and no spelling tricks. The entire difficulty of gostar lives in a single two-letter word: de. In Portuguese you do not "like something" — you "like of something." Forgetting that de is the most common mistake English speakers make in the entire language, so this page drills it relentlessly.

The cardinal rule: gostar DE

In English, "like" takes a direct object: I like coffee. In Portuguese, gostar is intransitive and requires the preposition de to attach to whatever you like. There is no exception to this in standard speech — the de is not optional, not stylistic, not regional. It is part of the verb.

• gostar de
  • noun: Gosto de café. (I like coffee.)
• gostar de
  • infinitive: Gosto de viajar. (I like to travel / I like traveling.)
• gostar de
  • person: Gosto de você. (I like you / I'm fond of you.)

When de meets a definite article, the two contract — this is automatic and obligatory:

• de + o = do: Gosto do filme. (I like the movie.)
• de + a = da: Gosto da música. (I like the song.)
• de + os = dos, de + as = das: Gosto dos vizinhos. (I like the neighbors.)

Meanings and register

Gostar de is the neutral, everyday "like." Its strength scales with adverbs: gosto (I like), gosto muito (I really like), gosto demais (I like it a ton). For affection toward people it means "to be fond of / to care about," and it sits a notch below amar ("to love"). Telling someone Eu gosto de você is warm but not a declaration of romantic love — that is Eu te amo. Brazilians, however, do say Eu amo very freely about things and experiences (Amo essa música! — "I love this song!"), so gostar and amar overlap more than in English when the object is a thing.

Indicative tenses

Presente do indicativo

The model -ar endings.

Pretérito perfeito

Pretérito imperfeito

Futuro do presente

Futuro do pretérito (conditional)

Subjunctive tenses

Presente do subjuntivo

-ar verbs flip to e endings.

Imperfeito do subjuntivo

Futuro do subjuntivo

Identical to the personal infinitive for regular -ar verbs.

Imperative

The imperative of gostar is rare in practice (you don't usually command someone to like something), but it follows the regular -ar pattern.

Non-finite forms

Why "de"? The deeper logic

It helps to know that gostar historically meant "to taste / to savor" (the same root as English gusto and Spanish gustar). You "took a taste of" something — hence de, the preposition of source and origin ("from / of"). The literal flavor faded but the grammar stayed: you still like of something, the way English keeps "fond of" rather than "fond." Reframing it as "I'm fond of coffee" rather than "I like coffee" makes the de feel natural instead of arbitrary.

This also explains why Portuguese gostar and Spanish gustar look alike but work in opposite directions. In Spanish, me gusta el café literally means "coffee pleases me" — the thing is the subject. In Portuguese, eu gosto do café puts you as the subject doing the liking. If you come from Spanish, do not import the gustar structure: Portuguese gostar behaves like a normal subject-verb-object verb, just with an obligatory de glued to the object.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Gostar is a fully regular -ar verb — no surprises in the conjugation.
• The one rule that matters: gostar DE. The preposition is obligatory before any noun, infinitive, or person.
• de contracts with articles: do, da, dos, das. Gosto do filme, not gosto o filme.
• It is BR's everyday "like"; amar is "to love" (romantic or emphatic), though Brazilians say amo freely about things too.
• The polite "I would like" is gostaria de — and yes, the de stays even there.