Learn Spanish (Spain): A mi abuelo no le gustan los osos grandes.

A mi abuelo no le gustan los osos grandes.

My grandfather does not like big bears.

Breakdown of A mi abuelo no le gustan los osos grandes.

Questions & Answers about A mi abuelo no le gustan los osos grandes.

Why does the sentence use gustan instead of gusta?

Because the things being liked (the big bears, los osos grandes) are plural. The verb gustar actually means "to be pleasing to". Since multiple bears are doing the pleasing, the verb takes the plural form gustan.

Why do we use both A mi abuelo and le?

The pronoun le means "to him", but by itself, it doesn't tell us exactly who the person is. We add A mi abuelo (To my grandfather) to clarify. It is a standard rule in Spanish to use both the clarifying phrase and the pronoun in the same sentence when using gustar.

Why is there a los before osos? The English translation doesn't say "the big bears".

In Spanish, when you talk about your likes, dislikes, or general categories of things, you must use the definite article (el, la, los, las). Therefore, "bears in general" must be translated as los osos.

Why is the adjective grandes instead of grandos to match the masculine word osos?

The singular word for "big" is grande. Adjectives that end in -e don't change based on whether a word is masculine or feminine. To make them plural to match los osos, you simply add an -s, resulting in grandes.