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A mi padre no le gustan las nubes.

A mi padre no le gustan las nubes.
My father does not like clouds.
From Lesson 71:The Natural World·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about A mi padre no le gustan las nubes.

Why does the sentence start with A?
In Spanish, verbs like gustar (to like) work backwards compared to English. Literally, this sentence means 'To my father, clouds are not pleasing.' The A means 'To', showing exactly who is experiencing the feeling.
Why is the word le used if we already said A mi padre?
Spanish frequently uses a 'redundant' pronoun. Even though we already named who we are talking about (A mi padre), grammar rules require us to also include the matching pronoun le (to him). It feels repetitive to English speakers, but it is perfectly normal and required in Spanish.
Why is the verb gustan plural if it is just one father?
With verbs like gustar, the verb matches the thing being liked, not the person who likes it. Because las nubes (the clouds) is plural, the verb must be the plural form gustan. If he disliked the rain (singular), it would just be gusta.
Why do we include las before nubes when the English translation just says 'clouds'?
When you talk about liking or disliking things in a general sense, Spanish requires you to use the definite article (el, la, los, or las). So while we simply say 'clouds' in English, Spanish requires 'the clouds'.

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