Breakdown of Me gusta actuar con mis amigos en el teatro del barrio.
Questions & Answers about Me gusta actuar con mis amigos en el teatro del barrio.
In Spanish, gustar doesn’t work like “to like” in English.
Literally, me gusta actuar means “acting pleases me”, not “I like acting”.
- me = to me (indirect object pronoun)
- gusta = pleases (3rd person singular)
- actuar = acting / to act (this is the thing that “pleases” you)
So the thing you like (here, actuar) is the grammatical subject, and me shows who it pleases.
You don’t say yo gusto actuar in Spanish; that sounds like “I am pleasing to act”, which is wrong.
Correct patterns are:
- Me gusta actuar. – I like to act.
- Te gusta actuar. – You like to act.
- Nos gusta actuar. – We like to act.
Use gusta when the thing you like is singular or an action (infinitive); use gustan when it’s plural.
With an infinitive (a verb like actuar):
- Me gusta actuar. – I like to act.
- Me gusta cantar y bailar. – I like to sing and dance.
(Even with two verbs, it stays gusta.)
With singular nouns:
- Me gusta el teatro. – I like theatre.
- Me gusta la música. – I like music.
With plural nouns:
- Me gustan los teatros antiguos. – I like old theatres.
- Me gustan mis amigos. – I like my friends.
In Me gusta actuar con mis amigos…, the “thing” you like is the action actuar, so you use gusta (singular).
After gustar, Spanish normally uses the infinitive (the basic form of the verb), not the -ando / -iendo form.
- Me gusta actuar. – I like to act / I like acting.
- Me gusta leer. – I like reading.
- Me gusta viajar. – I like travelling.
The English “-ing” form often looks like a Spanish gerund (leyendo, actuando), but in this structure Spanish chooses the infinitive.
Actuando would mean “acting (right now / in progress)”, and you’d only use it in a different structure:
- Estoy actuando con mis amigos. – I am acting with my friends.
You can, and it’s very common:
- Me gusta actuar con mis amigos…
- A mí me gusta actuar con mis amigos…
Both mean “I like to act with my friends…”.
The a mí part doesn’t change the basic meaning; it adds emphasis or contrast:
- A mí me gusta actuar, pero a mi hermano no.
I like acting, but my brother doesn’t.
So:
- Me gusta… = neutral.
- A mí me gusta… = “I like…” (contrast/stress).
Con basically means “with”, as in together with.
- actuar con mis amigos = to act with my friends, i.e. we perform together.
It doesn’t mean “towards my friends” or “act on my friends”. For that, you’d use a different structure, like:
- actuar delante de mis amigos – act in front of my friends
- actuar para mis amigos – act for my friends (as an audience)
In your sentence, the natural reading is that you and your friends act together.
In Spanish, speakers often include the possessive (mi, mis, tu, etc.) with words like padres, amigos, hijos where English might omit my.
- Me gusta actuar con mis amigos. – I like to act with my friends.
- Saying only con amigos usually means “with (some) friends” in a more general or vague way.
So:
- con mis amigos = your own friends, specific.
- con amigos = with friends (not clear whose; it could be anyone’s).
Amigos is:
- masculine plural
- used either for a group of only men or a mixed group (men and women).
If all your friends are women, you normally use the feminine form:
- mis amigas – my (female) friends.
So you could say:
- Me gusta actuar con mis amigas en el teatro del barrio. – if they’re all women.
- Me gusta actuar con mis amigos… – if they’re all men or mixed.
In everyday speech, even if the group is mixed, you’ll almost always hear the masculine plural amigos.
In Spanish, you usually need a definite article (el, la, los, las) in front of singular countable nouns when you’re talking about a specific place:
- en el teatro – in the theatre (a specific one)
- en el cine – at the cinema
- en el instituto – at the secondary school
Saying en teatro by itself is not natural here; it sounds incomplete.
You might see teatro without article when it’s more abstract or used like a subject area:
- Me gusta el teatro. – I like theatre.
- Estudio teatro. – I study theatre (as a discipline).
But with a specific place where you act, you need the article: en el teatro.
Del is simply the contraction of de + el:
- de + el → del
- en el teatro del barrio = in the theatre *of the neighbourhood*
Spanish always contracts de el → del and a el → al:
- del barrio – of the neighbourhood
- al teatro – to the theatre
You cannot write de el barrio in standard Spanish; it must be del barrio.
Yes, there’s a small nuance:
del barrio
- often understood as “of the (local) neighbourhood”, usually yours if the context is clear.
- More general: the neighbourhood’s theatre.
de mi barrio
- explicitly “of my neighbourhood”.
- Stronger sense that it’s your own area.
In many everyday situations, del barrio will naturally be understood as “of my neighbourhood” because you’re talking about your own routine.
If you want to be 100% explicit, say:
- Me gusta actuar en el teatro de mi barrio.
Barrio usually does correspond to “neighbourhood”, but in Spanish cities it can also have a more official or cultural sense:
- It’s a district / quarter / neighbourhood within a town or city.
- It can have its own identity: local shops, bars, theatre, fiesta, etc.
In Spain:
- el barrio often implies a familiar local area where people know each other, not just a random residential zone.
- el teatro del barrio sounds like a small, local theatre serving that community, not a big national theatre.
Grammatically, yes, but it sounds very unusual or poetic in everyday speech.
The normal, natural order with gustar is:
- Me gusta actuar con mis amigos en el teatro del barrio.
You can move parts for emphasis:
- Actuar con mis amigos en el teatro del barrio es lo que me gusta.
- Lo que me gusta es actuar con mis amigos en el teatro del barrio.
But Actuar con mis amigos… me gusta would sound marked, literary, or stylistically odd in normal conversation.
Yes. Encantar works like gustar but is stronger (to love / to be crazy about):
- Me gusta actuar con mis amigos… – I like acting with my friends…
- Me encanta actuar con mis amigos… – I love acting with my friends…
Same structure:
- Me encanta actuar.
- Nos encanta actuar en el teatro del barrio. – We love acting in the neighbourhood theatre.
Approximate pronunciation (Spain):
actuar → [ak-tu-AR]
- Stress on the last syllable: ar.
- The c is like k: ak.
- It’s three syllables: ac-tuar.
gusta → [GUS-ta]
- g like in go, never like in j.
- u like oo in good, but a bit shorter.
- Stress on gus.
teatro → [te-A-tro]
- Three syllables: te-a-tro.
- Stress on a: te-A-tro.
barrio → [BA-rryo]
- Strong, trilled rr in the middle.
- Two syllables: ba-rrio.
- The io sounds a bit like yo in yoga (but shorter).
Together, the sentence flows as:
Me gusta actuar con mis amigos en el teatro del barrio.
[me GUS-ta ak-tu-AR kon mis a-MI-gos en el te-A-tro del BA-rryo]