How Verbs Like "Gustar" Work
In Spanish, verbs that express likes, dislikes, and opinions work a bit differently. Instead of saying "I like it", the structure is closer to "It is pleasing to me."
The person experiencing the feeling is the indirect object (me, te, le, nos, les), and the thing causing the feeling is the subject.
| I love this series. | Me encanta esta serie. |
Singular vs. Plural
Because the thing you are reacting to is the grammatical subject, the verb usually only has two forms. Use the singular form (like gusta or interesa) when talking about a singular noun or an action. Use the plural form (like gustan or interesan) when talking about plural nouns.
| He is interested in the action documentary. | Le interesa el documental de acción. |
| Mystery series interest us a lot. | Nos interesan mucho las series de misterio. |
Other Verbs Like "Gustar"
Many useful verbs follow this exact same pattern. Some of the most common ones are:
- encantar (to love strongly / be enchanted by)
- importar (to care about / matter)
- interesar (to interest)
- parecer (to seem)
- doler (to hurt)
| Do you care about the subtitles? | ¿Te importan los subtítulos? |
| This platform seems very expensive to me. | Me parece muy cara esta plataforma. |
| Does your head hurt from reading the subtitles? | ¿Te duele la cabeza por leer los subtítulos? |
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