Breakdown of ¿Puedes comprar el helado que nos gusta?
comprar
to buy
poder
to be able to / can
que
that / than
gustar
to like
el helado
the ice cream
nos
to us
Questions & Answers about ¿Puedes comprar el helado que nos gusta?
Why is it gusta instead of gustamos if it means "we like"?
In Spanish, the verb gustar works differently than the English verb "to like". It actually translates closer to "to be pleasing". So, instead of saying "we like the ice cream", the Spanish sentence is structured as "the ice cream is pleasing to us". Because el helado (the ice cream) is the subject doing the pleasing, and it is singular, we use the singular verb form gusta.
What does the word nos do in this sentence?
Why are there two verbs back-to-back (puedes comprar)?
When you combine two verbs to express a single idea, only the first verb changes to match the person doing the action. Puedes is conjugated to mean "you can". The second verb, comprar (to buy), stays in its original, unchanged dictionary form (the infinitive) because it just finishes the idea of the first verb.
I thought qué meant "what", but here it translates to "that". Why?
You are right! When it has an accent mark (qué), it is a question word meaning "what". But without the accent mark, que is a connecting word that means "that", "which", or "who". In this sentence, it connects the noun el helado to the descriptive phrase nos gusta.
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