Breakdown of Me gusta la posibilidad de viajar a otro país con mi familia.
Questions & Answers about Me gusta la posibilidad de viajar a otro país con mi familia.
In Spanish, gustar does not work like English to like. Literally, gustar means to be pleasing.
- The thing that is liked is the grammatical subject.
- The person who likes it is an indirect object, shown with a pronoun (me, te, le, nos, les).
So:
- Me gusta la posibilidad... = The possibility is pleasing to me.
- Yo gusto la posibilidad... is incorrect in this sense and sounds wrong to native speakers.
If you change the person, you keep this pattern:
- Te gusta la posibilidad... = You like the possibility...
- Nos gusta la posibilidad... = We like the possibility...
The verb gustar agrees with the thing that is liked, not with the person.
- Here, the thing that is liked is la posibilidad (singular).
→ gusta (singular)
Me gusta la posibilidad...
If the subject were plural, you would use gustan:
- Me gustan las posibilidades de viajar a otro país.
I like the possibilities of traveling to another country.
Spanish uses the definite article (el, la, los, las) more than English, especially with abstract nouns like posibilidad when they are specific.
- Me gusta la posibilidad de viajar...
→ You are talking about a specific, concrete possibility (for example, a plan, an option you have).
Without la, Me gusta posibilidad de viajar... is ungrammatical in this structure. You might see:
- Hay posibilidad de viajar... (There is a possibility to travel...)
but after gustar in this sentence, you need la.
With nouns like la posibilidad, la oportunidad, la manera, etc., Spanish normally uses de + infinitive:
- la posibilidad de viajar
- la oportunidad de estudiar
- la manera de hacerlo
Para + infinitive usually expresses purpose or goal:
- Estudio para viajar.
I study in order to travel.
In your sentence, de is linking the noun posibilidad to the action viajar, so de viajar is the natural and correct choice.
There are two main reasons:
After a preposition like de, Spanish verbs must be in the infinitive.
- de viajar, de comer, de aprender
You cannot say de viajando in this structure.
- de viajar, de comer, de aprender
The infinitive acts like a noun here, similar to English “traveling” used as a noun.
- la posibilidad de viajar ≈ the possibility of traveling
Viajando is a gerund and is used for ongoing actions:
- Estoy viajando. – I am traveling.
That is a different structure from this sentence.
Yes, Me gusta viajar a otro país con mi familia is grammatically correct, but the meaning is a bit different:
Me gusta la posibilidad de viajar...
→ You like having the chance / opportunity to travel. The focus is on the option or potential.Me gusta viajar...
→ You like the activity itself (actually traveling), more general.
Both are natural; which one you use depends on what you want to emphasize: the opportunity vs. the activity.
The verb viajar (to travel) usually takes a to introduce the destination:
- viajar a otro país – to travel to another country
- viajar a México – to travel to Mexico
En describes being located somewhere, not moving there:
- Vivo en otro país. – I live in another country.
- Estoy en México. – I am in Mexico.
So with viajar, you normally say a + place.
The word otro already includes the idea of “another / an other”, so Spanish normally does not add un before it:
- otro país = another country
- otra casa = another house
Un otro país is grammatically possible but is rare and sounds very emphatic or stylistic, closer to “some other (different) country”. In everyday speech for “another country”, you simply say otro país.
Al is the contraction of a + el:
- a + el = al
We use el (and therefore al) only when there is a masculine singular noun with the definite article:
- al país = to the country
- al otro país = to the other country (a specific one already known in the context)
In your sentence, we are saying “another country” in general, not “the other country”:
- a otro país = to another country (non‑specific)
So a otro país is the correct and natural form for the general idea of “another country.”
In Spanish, the possessive mi / mis agrees with the number of the noun, not with how many people it refers to in reality.
- familia is grammatically singular.
→ mi familia (my family) - If it were plural (familias), then:
→ mis familias
Even though mi familia includes many people, grammatically it is treated as a single unit, so the correct form is mi, not mis.
Mi familia is a flexible term and can depend on context, but typically:
- It often means your immediate family: parents and siblings, possibly spouse and children.
- It can also mean your relatives more broadly, especially in contexts like traveling, visiting, or gatherings.
In Me gusta la posibilidad de viajar a otro país con mi familia, most listeners will understand mi familia as “my close family” (the people you normally live with or are closest to), unless the context clearly suggests your extended relatives.
Yes, that sentence is grammatically correct:
- La posibilidad de viajar a otro país con mi familia me gusta.
However:
- Me gusta la posibilidad de viajar a otro país con mi familia.
is the most natural, neutral word order in conversation.
Putting me at the end and moving la posibilidad... to the front adds emphasis on la posibilidad.... It can sound more formal, literary, or contrastive, like:
- La posibilidad de viajar a otro país con mi familia me gusta, pero no tengo dinero.
(Emphasizing that it is that whole possibility that you like.)
País has an accent mark because of Spanish stress rules and vowel pronunciation:
- It is pronounced as pa‑ís (two separate syllables), with the stress on the last syllable: -ís.
- Words ending in a vowel, n, or s are normally stressed on the next‑to‑last syllable (here that would be pa‑).
- Since país breaks this rule (stress is on the last syllable), it needs a written accent: país.
The accent also shows that a and í are in separate syllables, not forming a diphthong. So país is pronounced pa‑EES, not like a single syllable pais.