Learn Spanish (Latin America): A nosotros nos gusta pintar y dibujar.

A nosotros nos gusta pintar y dibujar.

We like to paint and draw.

Breakdown of A nosotros nos gusta pintar y dibujar.

Questions & Answers about A nosotros nos gusta pintar y dibujar.

Why do we need both A nosotros and nos in this sentence?

In Spanish, the pronoun nos is what actually tells us who the action is happening to. The phrase A nosotros is optional and is added here just for emphasis, as if saying, 'As for US, we like to paint and draw.'

Since we are talking about two activities (pintar and dibujar), why is it gusta instead of the plural gustan?

When you use gustar with action words (verbs in their basic form, like pintar and dibujar), you always use the singular form gusta. You only use the plural gustan when you are talking about plural objects or nouns, like los perros (the dogs).

Literally translated, how does this sentence work?

The verb gustar actually means 'to be pleasing to'. So, a literal translation of this sentence is 'To us, to us is pleasing to paint and to draw.' The activities of painting and drawing are the things doing the pleasing, which is why we don't conjugate the verb for 'we'.

Can I just say 'Nosotros gustamos pintar y dibujar'?

No, because gustar works backwards compared to English. You cannot use normal subject pronouns like nosotros to do the liking. You must use the indirect object pronoun nos to show who is being pleased.