Questions & Answers about A mi hermana le gusta poner cebollino en la tortilla.
Why does the sentence use both a mi hermana and le? Don’t they both mean to my sister?
Yes, they both point to the same person, but they do different jobs.
- a mi hermana names the person clearly: to my sister / as for my sister
- le is the indirect object pronoun that Spanish normally uses with gustar
With gustar, using the pronoun is standard:
- Le gusta... = She likes... / It pleases her...
Then a mi hermana is added to clarify or emphasize who le refers to.
So this structure is very normal:
Spanish often uses both the pronoun and the full noun phrase together.
Why is it gusta and not gustan?
Because the verb agrees with what is doing the pleasing, not with the person who likes it.
In this sentence, what pleases your sister is the action poner cebollino en la tortilla.
That whole infinitive phrase behaves like a singular idea, so Spanish uses gusta:
- A mi hermana le gusta poner cebollino...
Compare:
- Le gusta cocinar. → She likes cooking.
- Le gustan las cebollas. → She likes onions.
So:
- gusta = used with a singular noun or an infinitive
- gustan = used with a plural noun
Why is poner in the infinitive?