Learn Spanish (Spain): Me gustan las monedas de Francia.

Me gustan las monedas de Francia.

I like coins from France.

Breakdown of Me gustan las monedas de Francia.

from

Francia

France

to me / myself (reflexive) / me (direct object)

gustar

to like

Questions & Answers about Me gustan las monedas de Francia.

Why is it gustan with an n at the end instead of just gusta?

In Spanish, the verb gustar works more like 'to be pleasing to'. The things that are pleasing—in this case, the coins (las monedas)—are actually the subject of the sentence. Because las monedas is plural, the verb must also be plural, so we add an 'n' to make it gustan.

The translation says 'coins', but the Spanish uses las monedas (the coins). Why do we need las?

Even though we don't say 'the' in English when talking about liking things in general, Spanish requires a definite article (el, la, los, or las) before the subject of gustar. Since monedas is a feminine plural noun, we must use las.

What does Me do in this sentence?

Me is an indirect object pronoun that means 'to me'. Because gustar is literally translated as 'to be pleasing to', the sentence Me gustan las monedas really means 'The coins are pleasing to me.'

Why is de used here to mean 'from'?

The preposition de is commonly used to show origin, possession, or what something is made of. Here, de Francia tells us where the coins originate, so it perfectly translates to 'from France' or 'of France'.