11.3.1: Gramática

In Unit 4 of FL107: Voces en camino - Voces nuevas (Beginning Spanish 1), you learned how to use the verb gustar to talk about things you like or dislike.

Repaso:

Review the structure of gustar below and use 4.3 as an additional resource if necessary.

 

You probably noticed the pronouns le or les before the gustar-like verbs on the previous page:

• ¿Qué le importa a Mauro sobre su trabajo?
• Les faltan recursos básicos
• Le fascinan su energía y su curiosidad

These are indirect object pronouns, which refer to the object or the person who receives the action of a verb indirectly (in English, to whom or for whom). In Spanish, we use indirect object pronouns with gustar-like verbs.

 

Take a look at this table with the verb gustar:

El verbo gustar

Subject	Optional	(NO)	Indirect object pronouns	Gustar
Singular	(A mí)		me	gusta el apartamento.
	(A ti)		te (informal)	gustan las tareas del hogar.
	(A usted/Ud.)		le (formal)	gusta limpiar el piso.
	(A él/ella)		le	gustan los libros.
Plural	(A nosotros/nosotras)		nos	gusta la clase de español.
	(A vosotros/vosotras)		os	gustan los exámenes. (España)
	(A ustedes/Uds.)		les	gusta cocinar.
	(A ellos/ellas)		les	gusta lavar los vidrios.

Repaso:

The conjugation of gustar does not depend on the person who likes or dislikes, but on what is liked.

• Use singular gusta with infinitives (non-conjugated verbs) or a singular noun
• Use plural gustan with plural nouns

 

There are other verbs that use the same structure as gustar and use the third person singular or plural forms with an indirect object pronoun.

Verbo como gustar	Definición	Ejemplo
encantar	to delight, to love	A María le encanta trabajar en equipo.
faltar	to lack	A este departamento le faltan recursos tecnológicos.
fascinar	to fascinate, to like a lot	A mi colega le fascina el análisis de datos.
disgustar	to annoy, to upset	A los trabajadores les disgusta el horario inflexible.
importar	to be important to, to matter, to mind	A la directora le importa mucho la ética profesional.
interesar	to interest, to be interesting to	A varios empleados les interesa la capacitación digital.
molestar	to bother, to annoy	Me molestan las interrupciones constantes durante el trabajo.
parecer	to seem, to appear	A los empleados les parece justa la nueva política (policy).

 

Nota 1:

"Molestar" (to bother, to annoy) and "to molest" in English (to harass, to abuse) are false cognates. In other words, they look similar, but have different meanings in each language.

Nota 2:

In addition to the example sentences above, notice that importar and molestar can be used to ask polite questions in Spanish.

Modelos:

• ¿Te importa ayudarme? Do you mind helping me?
• ¿Le molesta limpiar los platos? Do you mind washing the dishes?

---