Breakdown of Me gusta este paisaje, pero prefiero aquel.
pero
but
preferir
to prefer
me
to me / me (direct object)
gustar
to like
este
this
aquel
that (far away)
el paisaje
the landscape
Questions & Answers about Me gusta este paisaje, pero prefiero aquel.
Why does the sentence use aquel for "that one" instead of ese?
Why is there no noun after aquel, and does it need an accent mark?
Here, aquel is acting as a pronoun, meaning it replaces the noun entirely to avoid repeating it ("that one" instead of "that landscape"). In the past, Spanish required an accent mark on demonstrative pronouns (aquél) to tell them apart from adjectives. However, modern spelling rules say the accent is no longer needed, so it is simply written as aquel.
How do we know to use the masculine forms este and aquel with paisaje?
Even though it ends in -e instead of -o, paisaje (landscape) is a masculine noun. A handy rule of thumb is that almost all Spanish nouns ending in -aje are masculine (like el viaje or el mensaje). Therefore, it takes the masculine modifiers este and aquel.
Why does preferir change to prefiero?
Preferir (to prefer) is a stem-changing verb. When you conjugate it for yo (I) in the present tense, the second e in the stem changes to ie, giving us prefiero.
Why is it Me gusta instead of Yo gusto?
Learn Me gusta este paisaje, pero prefiero aquel and more in Spanish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free