Breakdown of A ella le gusta el té y a él le gusta el café.
él
he / him (after a preposition)
y
and
ella
she / her (after a preposition)
el café
the coffee
a
to
gustar
to like
le
to him / to her / to you (formal) / him (direct object, male person)
el té
the tea
Questions & Answers about A ella le gusta el té y a él le gusta el café.
Why do we need both a ella and le in the first part of the sentence?
In Spanish, the verb gustar works differently than 'to like' in English. Literally, this sentence says 'To her, tea is pleasing to her.' The pronoun le is required to show who is being pleased. However, because le can mean 'to him,' 'to her,' or 'to you,' we add a ella to clarify exactly who we are talking about. In this sentence, it also creates a strong contrast between what she likes and what he likes.
Why does the sentence use el té and el café when the English translation is just 'tea' and 'coffee'?
With verbs like gustar, the thing you like is actually the grammatical subject of the sentence. In Spanish, when a general category or substance is the subject of a sentence, you must include the definite article (el, la, los, or las). Therefore, you must say el té and el café instead of just té and café.
I see él and el in the second half of the sentence. Why does one have an accent mark?
The written accent mark distinguishes two words that sound identical but have different meanings. The word él with the accent is the pronoun meaning 'he' or 'him' (used here in the phrase a él). The word el without the accent is the masculine article meaning 'the' (used here in el café).
Does the accent on té serve the same purpose?
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