Me gusta estudiar sentado en la biblioteca.

I like to study sitting in the library.

Breakdown of Me gusta estudiar sentado en la biblioteca.

• yo: I
• gustar: to like
• en: in
• estudiar: to study
• la biblioteca: the library
• .: period
• sentado: seated

Questions & Answers about Me gusta estudiar sentado en la biblioteca.

Why is it me gusta and not yo gusto?

In Spanish, gustar doesn’t work like English to like.

• Literal idea: gustar ≈ to be pleasing (to someone).
• So me gusta = it is pleasing to me → I like it.

Structure:

• me = to me (indirect object pronoun)
• gusta = is pleasing (3rd person singular of gustar)

Saying yo gusto estudiar… would mean something like I am pleasing to study…, which is wrong. You need me gusta to express I like….

What exactly does me do in me gusta? Is it a direct object?

me in me gusta is an indirect object pronoun meaning to me.

With gustar, the structure is:

• A mí / me = to me (indirect object)
• gusta = is pleasing (verb)
• estudiar sentado en la biblioteca = the thing that pleases me (subject of the verb)

So grammatically, the person who likes something is in the indirect object, not as the subject. The same happens with other people:

• Te gusta… = You like… (to you it is pleasing)
• Le gusta… = He/She/You-formal like(s)… (to him/her/you it is pleasing)
• Nos gusta… = We like…
• Os gusta… (Spain) = You all like…
• Les gusta… = They/You all like…

Why is it gusta and not gustan in this sentence?

Gustar agrees with the thing that is liked, not with the person who likes it.

Here, what you “like” is estudiar sentado en la biblioteca – that entire activity is one single thing, grammatically singular.

So:

• Me gusta estudiar sentado en la biblioteca.
  
  • Subject: estudiar sentado en la biblioteca (singular idea)
  • Verb: gusta (3rd person singular)

You use gustan when the liked thing is plural:

• Me gustan los libros. – I like books. (books = plural)
• Me gustan las bibliotecas grandes. – I like big libraries.

Why is estudiar in the infinitive and not estudiando?

After gustar, when you like doing something, Spanish normally uses the infinitive:

• Me gusta estudiar. – I like to study / I like studying.
• Me gusta leer. – I like reading.

The infinitive in Spanish can act like a noun, similar to “studying” or “to study” in English.

Estudiando is a gerund (–ing form) and is used more for ongoing actions, not as the object of gustar:

• Estoy estudiando. – I am studying (right now).

So Me gusta estudiar is correct; Me gusta estudiando is not.

What is sentado doing grammatically here? Is it an adjective or a verb form?

Sentado is the past participle of sentar(se), but in this sentence it functions as an adjective (a “state”):

• estudiar sentado ≈ to study while (being) seated / sitting down

So you have:

• Verb: estudiar (to study)
• Adjectival complement: sentado (seated)

Grammatically, sentado is a predicative complement describing the subject (the person who is studying), even though that subject is not written (it’s implied yo).

Does sentado change with gender and number? What if the speaker is a woman?

Yes, sentado agrees with the person it refers to (the one doing the studying).

• If the speaker is a man:

  • Me gusta estudiar sentado en la biblioteca.

• If the speaker is a woman:

  • Me gusta estudiar sentada en la biblioteca.

For more people:

• Group of men or mixed group:

  • Nos gusta estudiar sentados en la biblioteca.

• Group of only women:

  • Nos gusta estudiar sentadas en la biblioteca.

So you change the ending:

• –o → masculine singular
• –a → feminine singular
• –os → masculine / mixed plural
• –as → feminine plural

Can I move sentado to another position? For example, Me gusta estudiar en la biblioteca sentado?

Yes, Spanish word order is flexible here, and sentado can move as long as the meaning stays clear.

All of these are natural:

• Me gusta estudiar sentado en la biblioteca.
• Me gusta estudiar en la biblioteca sentado.

Both mean essentially the same: I like to study sitting down in the library.
Putting sentado right after estudiar tends to sound a bit more tightly connected, but both orders are fine.

What you normally don’t do is separate estudiar and sentado too much or put sentado far from the verb it describes in a confusing way.

Why is it en la biblioteca and not just en biblioteca?

In Spanish, places like la biblioteca, el cine, el parque, etc., almost always need an article (el / la / los / las) when you’re talking about them in a general, everyday sense.

• en la biblioteca = in the library
• en el cine = at the cinema
• en el parque = in the park

Saying en biblioteca without the article sounds incomplete or very unusual in standard Spanish. You’ll only see article-less uses in some set phrases, headlines, labels, etc., but not here.

Why do we use en la biblioteca and not a la biblioteca or another preposition?

• en = in / at (location)
• a = to (direction / movement)

In Me gusta estudiar sentado en la biblioteca, you’re describing where you study (a location), not movement towards it. So en is correct:

• Estudio en la biblioteca. – I study in/at the library.

By contrast:

• Voy a la biblioteca. – I go to the library. (movement → a)

Other prepositions would change the meaning:

• por la biblioteca = around/through the library (moving around), etc.

Can I say A mí me gusta estudiar sentado en la biblioteca? What’s the difference?

Yes, that’s perfectly correct:

• Me gusta estudiar sentado en la biblioteca.
• A mí me gusta estudiar sentado en la biblioteca.

Meaning is the same; the difference is emphasis.

• A mí puts contrast/emphasis on me:
  • A mí me gusta estudiar sentado en la biblioteca, pero a él no.
    – I like studying seated in the library, but he doesn’t.

In normal, neutral sentences where you’re not contrasting people, you can just say Me gusta… without A mí.

Why isn’t there a yo in the sentence? How do we know it’s “I like…”?

Spanish usually omits subject pronouns (yo, tú, él, etc.) because the verb forms and pronouns already tell you who the subject is.

Here:

• me gusta – the me already signals to me → I like.

You could technically say:

• Yo – not really used here as subject because yo is not the subject of gustar.
• A mí me gusta estudiar sentado en la biblioteca. – used for emphasis/contrast, not required.

So the sentence is natural without yo, and we know it’s I like from me.

Is biblioteca the same as “library” and “bookstore”? I’ve also seen librería.

In Spain (and generally in Spanish):

• la biblioteca = the library (place where you borrow books, study, etc.)
• la librería = the bookshop / bookstore (place where you buy books)

So in Me gusta estudiar sentado en la biblioteca, it’s clearly a library, not a shop.

Be careful: librería is a false friend; it does not mean library.

How would I say the same idea for other people, like “We like to study sitting down in the library”?

You keep the same structure but change the indirect object pronoun and the gustar form if needed.

For one thing liked (singular → gusta stays):

• Te gusta estudiar sentado en la biblioteca. – You like to study seated in the library.
• Le gusta estudiar sentado/sentada en la biblioteca. – He/She likes… (sentado/a agrees with the person)
• Nos gusta estudiar sentados/sentadas en la biblioteca. – We like…
• Os gusta estudiar sentados/sentadas en la biblioteca. – You all (Spain) like…
• Les gusta estudiar sentados/sentadas en la biblioteca. – They/You all like…

Remember to make sentado/a(s) agree with the gender/number of the people studying.