Defining a Gustar
Gustar is a Spanish verb that means to like. However, it is only a literal translation and sometimes its implied meaning is different from what it really stands for. Using gustarin a sentence is one of the confusing parts that beginners encounter when studying the Spanish language.
Sample of Gustar Sentences
Me gustar el coche. I like the car.
Nos gustan los coches . We like the cars.
Le gustan las camionetas. He likes the pickups.
At first glance, you could see that the Spanish sentences do not use the pronouns yo, nosotros,and el for I, we, and he. Instead, it uses the indirect-object pronouns me, nos, and le. Then, you’d wonder, Why is the sentence translated differently? If we are using indirect-object pronouns in the Spanish sentence, how did I become the subject in the English translation, and the car become the direct object?
Like mentioned beforehand, gustar tends to confuse beginners because it usually takes on a different actual meaning from what it is usually translated. Also, English and Spanish are almost similar in terms of sentence construction, and frequently encountering such similar constructions can cause a student to be initially bogged down upon encountering a different sentence construction.
Gustar is used in a specific sentence construction. As you can see from the sentence, it uses the structure “indirect-object pronoun who likes + verb + object.” So, back to the question, why did I become the subject in the first English sentence when it is the indirect object in the Spanish one?
Actually, gustar has a literal meaning of is pleasing to. In the course of translating, the verb is seen to imply a like for something. Hence, me gusta el coche is actually The car is pleasing to me. Now, you could see the subject-verb-indirect object structure that you can infer from the Spanish sentence.
Third-person Usage of Gustar in a Sentence
Take note of this example: le gustan las camionetas. This sentence means She likes the pickups. There are times that we would wish to substitute a proper noun or a name to the pronoun she. Beginners would probably be at a loss on how to do so, understandably, especially if they have encountered such a sentence structure for the first time.
In this case, one has to only add the prepositional phrase a followed by the proper noun that one desires to use. This is placed next to the indirect-pronoun object, because it cannot be omitted. From this example, you can infer that one cannot substitute a proper noun for a proper noun when using gustar. Instead, you clarify only who is the person being referred to by the indirect-object pronoun. In this example, the result would be: A Joanna le gustan las camionetas or, in English, Joanna likes the pickups.
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