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A los niños les gustan los leones y los osos.

A los niños les gustan los leones y los osos.
The boys like lions and bears.
From Lesson 51:Plural agreement with verbs of liking (gustan)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about A los niños les gustan los leones y los osos.

Why is it gustan and not gusta?
In Spanish, the verb gustar works a bit like saying 'to be pleasing'. The things being liked here are the lions and bears (los leones y los osos). Since more than one thing is doing the pleasing, they are plural, so the verb must be in the plural form gustan.
Why do we need the word les?
The word les is a pronoun that means 'to them'. Because gustar works backwards compared to English, you need les to show that the animals are pleasing to them (the boys).
What is the purpose of the A at the very beginning of the sentence?
The A translates to 'To', making A los niños mean 'To the boys'. We use this phrase to clarify exactly who the pronoun les refers to, since les can mean 'to them', 'to you all', or point to a mixed group.
Why does Spanish use los leones y los osos instead of just leones y osos?
In English, we usually leave out the word 'the' when talking about things in general, like 'lions and bears'. However, in Spanish, when a general noun is the subject of the sentence (the ones doing the pleasing), it requires a definite article like el, la, los, or las.

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