Breakdown of No me gusta el fútbol ni el baloncesto.
no
no / not
me
to me / myself (reflexive) / me (direct object)
gustar
to like
el fútbol
the football
el baloncesto
the basketball
ni
nor / not even
Questions & Answers about No me gusta el fútbol ni el baloncesto.
Why do we use 'el' before 'fútbol' and 'baloncesto' when English just says 'football' and 'basketball'?
In Spanish, when you talk about things in a general sense, like sports or hobbies, you must use the definite article (el, la, los, las). Also, because the verb gustar literally means 'to be pleasing to', el fútbol is actually the subject of the sentence, and subjects in Spanish almost always need an article.
The sentence starts with No but later uses ni. How does this combination work?
When you want to say you don't like two different things, you put no before the verb and ni (meaning 'nor') before the second thing. It is like saying 'I do not like football, nor basketball'. If you want to strongly say 'neither... nor', you can even add an extra ni and say No me gusta ni el fútbol ni el baloncesto.
Since the sentence mentions two sports, shouldn't the verb be plural (gustan)?
This is a great question! When you list singular things that you don't like using ni, and the verb comes before the list, Spanish speakers usually keep the verb in the singular (gusta). Because the verb gustar almost always comes before the things you like (or don't like), using the singular gusta sounds perfectly natural here.
Where is the word for 'I' in this sentence?
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