Modern Spanish Grammar: A Practical Guide

58Expressing likes and dislikesThis chapter looks at the ways in which Spanish expresses the concept of likes anddislikes. It considers the verbs associated with them and the way in which thesefunction, as well as a range of other colloquial expressions.58.1How to say you like or dislike someone or somethingGustar, ‘to please’, is the verb most commonly associated with likes and dislikes.Spanish me gusta el fútbol corresponds to English ‘I like football’; it is important torealize, however, that the Spanish sentence literally means ‘football pleases me’. Thusgustar is normally preceded by an indirect object pronoun (me, te, le, nos, os, or les),which signals the person to whom something is pleasing, while the verb itself takes thethird person ending, agreeing with its subject, the thing which is pleasing, which,however, normally follows this verb. So, instead of saying ‘I like something’, as youwould in English, Spanish speakers would say literally ‘Something pleases me’ (e.g. megusta el español, ‘I like Spanish’). 8.2 (p. 36); 28.1 (p. 145)58.1.1Using gustar with a noun or pronounGustar may be followed by a noun or a pronoun, in which case the verb will agree innumber (third person singular or plural) with the noun or pronoun (e.g. a personal,demonstrative or possessive pronoun).Me gusta.I like it.No me gustan.I don’t like them.Me gusta mucho el tenis.I like tennis very much.Me gustan los deportes.I like sports.Nos gusta ella.We like her.No nos gustan ellos.We don’t like them.340