Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Me gusta caminar por el sendero del bosque con mi familia. - I like to walk along the forest path with my family.

Use gusta with:
- one thing:
  - Me gusta el libro. – I like the book.
- an activity (infinitive):
  - Me gusta caminar. – I like walking.
Use gustan with:
- more than one thing (plural noun):
  - Me gustan los libros. – I like the books.
  - Me gustan los senderos del bosque. – I like the forest trails.

In your sentence, caminar is a single activity, so you must say me gusta caminar, not me gustan caminar.

Why is it caminar and not camino after me gusta?

After gustar (and many other verbs of likes/dislikes), Spanish normally uses the infinitive to talk about activities:

Me gusta caminar. – I like to walk / walking.
Me gusta leer. – I like to read / reading.

The infinitive in Spanish can act like a noun (“the act of walking”), so it fits perfectly as “the thing that pleases me”.

*Me gusta camino is wrong here because camino is a conjugated form (“I walk”) and does not function as a noun-like “activity” in this structure.

If you really wanted to use a conjugated verb, you’d have to change the structure, for example:

Me gusta que camino por el bosque. – I like that I walk… (grammatically possible but unnatural here).

Can I say A mí me gusta caminar…? What’s the difference from Me gusta caminar…?

Yes, both are correct and mean essentially the same:

Me gusta caminar por el sendero del bosque con mi familia.
A mí me gusta caminar por el sendero del bosque con mi familia.

The “a mí” part is used for emphasis or contrast:

A mí me gusta caminar por el sendero del bosque, pero a mi hermano no.
– I like walking along the forest path, but my brother doesn’t.

Notes:

With gustar, you often see a + pronoun/noun (a mí, a ti, a Juan…) to clarify or emphasize who likes something.
You still need the clitic pronoun (me, te, le…) even if you use a mí / a ti / a Juan, e.g.:
- A Juan le gusta… (not A Juan gusta…).

Why is por used in caminar por el sendero? Could I say en el sendero instead?

Por here expresses the idea of movement along or through a place:

Caminar por el sendero del bosque ≈ to walk along/through the forest path.

You can say caminar en el sendero, but it slightly changes the nuance:

Caminar en el sendero focuses more on being on/in the path (location).
Caminar por el sendero focuses on moving along the path (route).

In this context (walking along a trail), por is the most natural and common choice in Spain.

What’s the difference between sendero, camino, and senda?

All three can refer to paths, but they have different typical uses and nuances:

Sendero
- Very common for a trail or footpath, especially in nature.
- El sendero del bosque – the forest trail.
Camino
- More general: road, way, path (can be for cars, people, a route in life, etc.).
- El camino al pueblo – the road/path to the village.
- El Camino de Santiago – the famous pilgrimage route.
Senda
- Often feels more literary or formal, though you may still see it in signs or fixed phrases.
- Senda and sendero are close in meaning; sendero is more everyday.

In your sentence, sendero is ideal because it clearly suggests a walking trail in a forest.

Why is it del bosque and not de el bosque?

In Spanish, de + el always contracts to del:

de + el bosque → del bosque
el sendero del bosque – the forest path / the path of the forest.

This contraction is mandatory; *de el bosque is incorrect.

There is no contraction with other articles or words:

de la casa (not dla),
de los árboles,
de las montañas.

Why do we say el sendero but mi familia without an article?

Two different things are going on:

Article with a normal noun
- El sendero – the path (specific path).
- Common countable nouns usually take an article (el, la, un, una…) when they are specific.
Possessive with a family noun
- Mi familia already has a possessive (mi = my), so you don’t add another article in this case.
- You say: mi familia, mi hermana, mi madre, etc. (not la mi familia).

You can say la familia in other contexts:

Voy con la familia. – I’m going with the family. (more general; could be “the family” as a group, often your own, but less personal than mi familia).

Here, con mi familia is natural because you’re clearly talking about your own family.

Why is it mi familia and not mis familia? Isn’t “family” a group of people?

In Spanish, familia is grammatically singular, even though it refers to many people:

la familia – the family (one unit)
mi familia – my family

The possessive agrees with the grammatical number of the noun, not the number of people inside the group:

mi familia (singular noun)
mis familias (plural noun: multiple families).

So you say:

Mi familia vive en Madrid. – My family lives in Madrid. (singular verb).

If I make mi familia the subject, is the verb singular or plural in Spain?

In standard European Spanish, mi familia usually takes a singular verb, because familia is grammatically singular:

Mi familia camina por el sendero del bosque. – My family walks along the forest path.
Mi familia es muy unida. – My family is very close.

In some varieties of Spanish (especially in Latin America), people sometimes use plural verbs with collective nouns (La familia están…), but in Spain, the singular is the norm in careful speech:

Preferred in Spain: Mi familia está en casa.
Much less common: Mi familia están en casa.

Can I put caminar por el sendero del bosque con mi familia at the beginning, like:
Caminar por el sendero del bosque con mi familia me gusta?

You can, and it’s grammatically possible, but it sounds quite unusual and marked in everyday speech.

Normal, neutral order:

Me gusta caminar por el sendero del bosque con mi familia.

Fronting the long infinitive phrase (Caminar por el sendero…) is something you might do in poetic, literary, or very emphatic language:

Caminar por el sendero del bosque con mi familia me gusta muchísimo.

In normal conversation, keep the original order: Me gusta + [activity].

How would I say “We like to walk along the forest path with our family” instead of “I like…”?

You change me to nos (for “we”) and mi to nuestra (our):

Nos gusta caminar por el sendero del bosque con nuestra familia.

Pronoun changes with gustar (Spain):

Me gusta… – I like…
Te gusta… – You (singular informal, tú) like…
Le gusta… – He/She/You (formal, usted) like…
Nos gusta… – We like…
Os gusta… – You (plural informal, vosotros in Spain) like…
Les gusta… – They / You (plural formal, ustedes) like…

Remember: gusta stays singular here because caminar (the activity) is singular.

Could I use encantar instead of gustar here? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

Me encanta caminar por el sendero del bosque con mi familia.

The structure is the same as gustar (same pronouns, same agreement), but:

gustar ≈ to like
encantar ≈ to really like / to love (things/activities)

So:

Me gusta caminar… – I like walking…
Me encanta caminar… – I love walking… (much stronger).

Be careful: encantar in this structure is for things and activities, not usually for people in the romantic sense (for that, Spanish normally uses querer or amar).