¿Te gustan los tomates?

Questions & Answers about ¿Te gustan los tomates?

Why is the verb gustan instead of gusta?
In Spanish, the verb gustar works differently than "to like" in English. Instead of "you like tomatoes", the structure is actually "tomatoes are pleasing to you". Because tomates is a plural noun, you must use the plural form of the verb, which is gustan.
Why do we need los before tomates? In English we just ask "Do you like tomatoes?".
When you talk about things you like or dislike in a general sense, Spanish requires you to use the definite article (words like el, la, los, or las). You cannot drop the article and just say Te gustan tomates.
What exactly does Te mean in this sentence?
Te means "to you". Because the sentence literally translates as "the tomatoes are pleasing to you", the word Te shows who is receiving that pleasing feeling. If you were asking if a third person liked tomatoes, you would change Te to Le (to him or her).
Why does the sentence start with an upside-down question mark?
In written Spanish, every question must begin with an inverted question mark (¿) and end with a standard one (?). This helps the reader know immediately that the sentence is a question, which is especially helpful for reading aloud.

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