No me gusta despedirme con prisa; prefiero quedarme un minuto más y hablar con calma.

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Breakdown of No me gusta despedirme con prisa; prefiero quedarme un minuto más y hablar con calma.

• gustar: to like
• con: with
• me: me

Questions & Answers about No me gusta despedirme con prisa; prefiero quedarme un minuto más y hablar con calma.

Why is it no me gusta and not no gusto?

Because gustar works differently from English to like.

In Spanish, gustar is closer to to be pleasing to. So:

• Me gusta = It pleases me / I like it
• No me gusta despedirme con prisa = Saying goodbye in a hurry is not pleasing to me

Here:

• me = to me
• gusta = third person singular, because the thing being liked is the action despedirme con prisa

So the structure is not I like X, but rather X is pleasing to me.

Why do despedirme and quedarme end in -me?

Because both come from reflexive/pronominal verbs:

• despedirse = to say goodbye
• quedarse = to stay / remain

The -me means myself and matches the speaker (yo).

When a reflexive verb is in the infinitive, the pronoun can be attached to the end:

• despedirme = to say goodbye
• quedarme = to stay

You could also see these verbs conjugated like:

• me despido
• me quedo

But after verbs like gustar and preferir, the infinitive is very common:

• No me gusta despedirme...
• Prefiero quedarme...