Learn Spanish (Spain): Me gustan los leones porque son fuertes.

In Spanish, gustar works differently than the English verb 'to like'. The structure is actually closer to 'Lions are pleasing to me'. Because the things doing the pleasing, los leones (lions), are plural, the verb must also be in the plural form: gustan.

Why is there a los before leones? We do not say 'I like the lions' in English.

In Spanish, when you talk about things in a general sense (like lions as an entire species), you must use a definite article (el, la, los, or las). Therefore, general 'lions' translates to los leones.

Why do we use son here instead of están?

We use son (which comes from the verb ser) because being strong is an essential, natural characteristic of lions. The other 'to be' verb, estar, is generally used for temporary conditions, emotions, or locations.

Why is the word for strong written as fuertes instead of fuerte?

In Spanish, adjectives must match the noun they describe in both gender and number. Since los leones is plural, the adjective describing them must also be plural, so we add an 's' to make it fuertes.

Is porque always written as a single word?