Breakdown of No me gusta dilatar la pupila.
no
no, not
me
to me / me (direct object)
gustar
to like
la
the (feminine)
dilatar
to dilate
la pupila
the pupil
Questions & Answers about No me gusta dilatar la pupila.
Does this sentence mean "I don't like having my pupils dilated"?
No, it actually means the speaker is the one doing the dilating! Because it uses the infinitive dilatar directly after me gusta, the speaker is the subject of both verbs (perhaps they are an eye doctor). To say "I don't like having my pupils dilated," you need a change of subject and the subjunctive: No me gusta que me dilaten la pupila.
Why does the sentence use la pupila instead of a possessive like mi pupila or su pupila?
As a quick refresher: in Spanish, body parts almost always take definite articles (el, la, los, las) instead of possessive adjectives (mi, tu, su) as long as the "owner" of the body part is obvious from the context.
Is dilatar only used for medical things like pupils?
While it literally means "to dilate" or "to expand" physically, in many parts of Latin America (especially Mexico and Central America), dilatar is also a very common conversational verb meaning "to take a long time" or "to delay." For example, someone might say No me dilato to mean "I won't take long."
How could I use this lesson's grammar point (lo + adjective) to say "The annoying thing is dilating the pupil"?
You can combine the neuter article lo with a masculine singular adjective like molesto (annoying). To say "The annoying thing is dilating the pupil," you would say: Lo molesto es dilatar la pupila. This structure perfectly turns the adjective into an abstract noun phrase.
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