Me gusta escuchar lo que mis amigos dicen.

I like to listen to what my friends say.

Breakdown of Me gusta escuchar lo que mis amigos dicen.

• el amigo: the friend
• yo: I
• gustar: to like
• escuchar: to listen
• mis: my
• decir: to say

Questions & Answers about Me gusta escuchar lo que mis amigos dicen.

Why do we say Me gusta instead of Me gusto?

In Spanish, gustar is used in a special construction that literally means: “It pleases me.” The subject of the verb is whatever you like, not “I.” So we say Me gusta (It pleases me) rather than Me gusto (I please myself).

Why is escuchar in the infinitive form?

After Me gusta, which functions like “I like,” you typically use the infinitive to express what you like doing. Thus, you say me gusta escuchar (I like listening) rather than a conjugated form like yo escucho in this context.

Why do we use lo que instead of just que?

In this sentence, lo que acts as a neutral pronoun meaning “that which” or “what.” If you only used que, the sentence wouldn’t convey the same idea of “what my friends say.” Lo que explicitly indicates the thing or the content your friends say.

Why is it mis amigos dicen and not dicen mis amigos?

Spanish sentences are relatively flexible in word order, but mis amigos dicen is a straightforward subject-verb order. You can also say dicen mis amigos for stylistic emphasis, but mis amigos dicen is the most common and direct way to say “my friends say.”

Does me in Me gusta escuchar lo que mis amigos dicen refer to ‘me’ as in myself?

Yes. Me is the indirect object pronoun that indicates who is being pleased. It matches the pronoun “I” in English but is used in Spanish to mean “to me” in the context of liking something.