En resumen (the short version)
- With gustar, the thing you like is the subject of the sentence. That's why it's me gusta, not yo gusto.
- The verb agrees with the thing: me gusta el chocolate, me gustan las fresas.
- Agree with a mí también and a mí tampoco, and use the same pattern for encantar, interesar, molestar, apetecer and friends.
¡Hola aventurero!
Yo gusto la pizza. 🍕
If you've ever said that, bienvenido al club. It's one of the most common mistakes English speakers make in Spanish, and it makes total sense. In English, you do the liking. In Spanish, it's the other way round.
In this post I'll show you how to use gustar in Spanish by looking at how the sentence is actually built. Once you can see the pieces, the mistakes mostly disappear on their own.
English has verbs like this too
Here's the good news: you already use this pattern in English. You just don't use it for "like".
Think about these:
- Spiders scare me.
- That noise annoys me.
- This plan appeals to me.
In all three, the thing (spiders, the noise, the plan) is the subject, and you are on the receiving end. Nobody says "I scare spiders" when they mean spiders scare them 😄
Gustar works exactly like "appeal to". Me gusta el chocolate is really "chocolate appeals to me".
Teacher bit 🤓 Gustar comes from the Latin gustare, "to taste". So the idea was that something was tasty to you. Over time it came to mean "to please", but the shape stayed the same.
The pieces of a gustar sentence
Let's take one sentence apart and look at each piece:
| Piece | Spanish | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Who it pleases (optional) | A mí | Adds emphasis or makes it clear who you mean |
| Who it pleases (always) | me | Shows who's on the receiving end |
| The verb | gusta | Agrees with the thing, not with you |
| The thing | el chocolate | This is the subject of the sentence |
So in English, the subject is "I". In Spanish, the subject is el chocolate. That one difference explains almost everything else in this post.
It also explains why yo doesn't appear. Yo is a subject word, and you're not the subject here. You're the me.
A mí gusta el chocolate is wrong. A mí is the optional extra, me is the part you can't leave out. So it's Me gusta or A mí me gusta, never A mí gusta.
Gusta or gustan? Look at the thing
Because the thing is the subject, the verb agrees with the thing. One thing, gusta. More than one, gustan.
| Gusta | Gustan | |
|---|---|---|
| When | One thing, or an activity (a verb) | Two or more things |
| Examples | Me gusta la playa. Me gusta bailar. | Me gustan las fresas. Me gustan los gatos. |
Activities always take gusta, even when you list a few of them: Me gusta bailar, cantar y cocinar. Each activity is a verb, and Spanish treats verbs as singular.
Before you say a gustar sentence, find the thing you like and check it. Is it plural, like las fresas? Then it's gustan. Is it one thing or a verb? Then it's gusta. Your me doesn't change anything.
Talking about other people
The me changes depending on who's being pleased:
| Short form | With emphasis | English |
|---|---|---|
| me gusta | a mí me gusta | I like |
| te gusta | a ti te gusta | you like |
| le gusta | a él / a ella / a usted le gusta | he / she likes, you like (formal) |
| nos gusta | a nosotros/as nos gusta | we like |
| os gusta | a vosotros/as os gusta | you all like |
| les gusta | a ellos / a ellas / a ustedes les gusta | they like |
Le can mean him, her or formal you, so Spanish often adds a + the person to be clear: A mi madre le encanta el jazz. A Daniel no le gustan nada las fiestas.
And yes, you say a mi madre and le. It looks like saying it twice. In Spanish, that's just how it's done.
Agreeing: a mí también, a mí tampoco
When someone tells you what they like, the English instinct is to say yo también. But their sentence was built with me, so your answer has to match: a mí.
| They say | You agree | You don't agree |
|---|---|---|
| Me gusta el jazz. | A mí también. | A mí no. |
| No me gusta el jazz. | A mí tampoco. | A mí sí. |
Yo también is for normal verbs: Vivo en Leeds. —¡Yo también! With gustar, it's always a mí. Same when you send the question back: ¿Y a ti?, not ¿Y tú? More on that in why your Spanish conversations die after two lines.
Gustar in the past
Same rule in the past: the verb agrees with the thing.
| Spanish | English | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| ¿Te gustó la película? | Did you like the film? | A finished time, like last night |
| Me encantaron los museos. | I loved the museums. | Plural thing, so plural verb |
| Hoy me ha gustado mucho la clase. | I really liked the class today. | Today, in Spain |
| De pequeña me gustaban los dibujos animados. | When I was little I liked cartoons. | How things used to be |
Look at me encantaron. Lots of learners say me encantó los museos because it feels like "I loved". But los museos is plural, so the verb is too.
Gustar's family
Here's the part I love. Once you've got gustar, you've got a whole family of verbs, because they work exactly the same way ✨
| Verb | Example | In English |
|---|---|---|
| encantar | Me encanta bailar. | I love dancing. |
| interesar | Me interesa mucho la historia. | I'm really interested in history. |
| importar | No me importa esperar. | I don't mind waiting. |
| molestar | Me molesta el ruido. | Noise bothers me. |
| doler | Me duelen los pies. | My feet hurt. |
| apetecer | ¿Te apetece un café? | Do you fancy a coffee? |
| quedar (clothes) | Esa chaqueta te queda genial. | That jacket really suits you. |
| caer bien / mal | Tu primo me cae muy bien. | I really like your cousin. |
Two to watch. Apetecer is used all the time in Spain for "to feel like" or "to fancy": No me apetece salir hoy. And for people, use caer bien. Me gustas means "I fancy you", so save that one for a date 🙈
Not sure if a new verb is in the family? Check whether English would say "it ___ me": it annoys me, it hurts me, it interests me. If it would, there's a good chance Spanish uses the gustar pattern.
Practise it this week
Knowing the pieces lets you check a sentence. Saying them a lot is what makes them automatic.
Describe what someone else likes
Pick a person you know well and say three sentences about them out loud: A mi hermana le encanta el yoga. Le gustan mucho las series de detectives. No le gusta nada madrugar.
Use one family verb a day
Monday molestar, Tuesday interesar, Wednesday apetecer… Say one true sentence with that day's verb: Me molesta cuando la gente habla en el cine.
Answer the TV
When someone on a Spanish TV series says me encanta or no me gusta, answer out loud: A mí también or A mí no. It takes two seconds, and it makes a mí automatic.
If you're working on talking about what you like doing, put this together with talking about your free time in Spanish.
Recap ✨
- With gustar, the thing you like is the subject. It works like "appeal to" in English.
- The verb agrees with the thing: gusta for one thing or an activity, gustan for plural things.
- Me is always there. A mí is optional, for emphasis.
- Agree with a mí también and a mí tampoco, and send the question back with ¿Y a ti?
- Encantar, interesar, molestar, doler, apetecer and caer bien all follow the same pattern.
If seeing a sentence in pieces like this helps you, that's how my Visual Spanish Grammar Book explains all of Spanish grammar, with colour-coded charts instead of long rule lists 📘
Now tell me 👀 What's one thing that te molesta (annoys you)? Cuéntame in the comments, using the gustar pattern!
¡Un abrazo aventurero!
Lucía 💛
Lucía · Linguist, translator, Spanish teacher and author of the Visual Spanish Grammar Book.
Come and learn Spanish with me and other aventureros like yourself at skool.com/learnspanish 🎉