# 20. The Verb “Gustar”

- **Time range:** 01:23:54 – 01:29:48  (duration 00:05:54)
- **Source:** [A Complete Guide To Every Fundamental In Spanish (The Conclusion)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=YHDZSHCt1DE&t=5034s)

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**[01:23:54]** probably seen many people explain the verb gustar in Spanish by saying that this verb means to like as in mea and

> **[on-screen 01:23:59]**
> Gustar - to like Me gusta bailar Me gusta cantar

**[01:24:00]** mea can which means I like to dance and

> **[on-screen 01:24:03]**
> Gustar - to like Me gusta bailar - | like to dance Me gusta cantar - | like to sing

**[01:24:03]** I like to sing I however do not like

> **[on-screen 01:24:05]**
> star - to like Me gusta bailar ike to dance Me gusta cantar - | lik sing

**[01:24:05]** these explanations because they tend to confuse people rather than make them understand the subject matter properly in sentences like I like to dance and I

> **[on-screen 01:24:10]**
> Gustar - to like Me gusta bailar - | like to dance Me gusta cantar - | like to sing

**[01:24:11]** like to sing what I recommend doing is instead of using the construction megusta which visually doesn't make sense you can use the verb Amar which means to love instead of thinking of how to use gustar in English and instead of saying I like to dance or to sing you can simply say y Amo and Y Amo which

> **[on-screen 01:24:25]**
> Amar - to love Yo amo bailar - | love to dance Yo amo cantar - | love to sing

**[01:24:27]** would be I love to dance or to sing and this method is actually quite effective because most of the time that's how we use these verbs and it also makes your brain think in terms of the order of the words in English unlike many people who explain gustar as to like I want to give gustar a different definition as in it

> **[on-screen 01:24:41]**
> Gustar it pleases / they please

**[01:24:41]** pleases or they please the verb gustar is actually a very strange verb in Spanish because it has a very unusual conjugation pattern that doesn't follow the normal pattern with normal ar verbs gustar has only two two types of conjugations which are gusta and gustan

> **[on-screen 01:24:54]**
> Gustar it pleases / they please Gusta / Gustan

**[01:24:55]** and they mainly come from the English verb to please in English the syntax of

> **[on-screen 01:24:58]**
> To please: Iplease | We please You please | Y'all please He/She/It Pleases | They please

**[01:24:59]** to please stays the same for five pronouns and only changes in the he she

> **[on-screen 01:25:01]**
> To please: I please | We please You please | Y'all please He/She/It Pleases | They please

**[01:25:02]** it pronoun to connect gustar more with English concentrate on the bottom pronouns for a bit specifically on the

> **[on-screen 01:25:07]**
> To please: I please | We please You please | Y'all please Itpleases | They please

**[01:25:08]** pronouns it pleases and they please the reason why I've mentioned this is because this is how systematically gustar Works in Spanish and that's the closest connection I can give it in English you might have heard some

> **[on-screen 01:25:17]**
> Gustar Somebody being pleased by something

**[01:25:17]** teachers say that gustar also refers to somebody being pleased by something and this is actually a definition that's more more accurate and I'll get to that in a bit is considered to be an irregular verb not only because it has two conjugations but also because it doesn't use normal pronouns like Y noos

> **[on-screen 01:25:31]**
> Gustar Somebody being pleased by something Yo, tu, élyella, nos os, vosotros} ellos

**[01:25:32]** and so on but rather it uses indirect

> **[on-screen 01:25:33]**
> Gustar With Indirect Object Pronouns: Me gusta(n) | Nos gusta(n) Te gusta(n) | Os gusta(n) Aél ella Le gusta(n) Les gusta(n)

**[01:25:34]** object pronouns to specify who is being pleased by what putting the pronouns

> **[on-screen 01:25:37]**
> Gustar With Indirect Object Pronouns: Me gusta(n) | Nos gusta(n) Te gusta(n) | Os gusta(n) Aél Aella Le gusta(n) Les gusta(n)

**[01:25:37]** before a conjugated verb and therefore the only sentences that you can have with gust are mea and we have to remember to use the construction or to specify who Le refers to and basically the list goes on the reason why Spanish uses this Construction with gust is because it specifies who is being pleased by what by putting the indirect object pronoun before a conjugated verb looking at this phrase mea one might say expressively that it means I like but visually looking at this phrase it doesn't make sense for this phrase to be that because me means me and it's not a normal pronoun in English whenever we say I like we use the normal pronoun I and like is the syntax that applies to the

> **[on-screen 01:26:13]**
> Me * Me gusta | like ee

**[01:26:14]** noun and not the continuation after it with the verb gustar the conjugation gusta applies to the thing being pleased and not the pronoun as in it pleas

> **[on-screen 01:26:21]**
> Me gusta(n) It pleases me They please me

**[01:26:22]** pleases me mea or they please me mean

> **[on-screen 01:26:26]**
> Gustar - To be pleased by something

**[01:26:26]** overall gustar doesn't necessarily mean to like something but it means to be pleased by something with gusta

> **[on-screen 01:26:31]**
> Gustar - To be pleased by something Gusta - It pleases Gustan - They please

**[01:26:31]** referring to it pleases and gustan referring to they please and from there

> **[on-screen 01:26:36]**
> Gustar - To be pleased by something ___ Gusta -Itpleases __ ___ Gustan - They please ___

**[01:26:36]** we simply have to choose any indirect object pronoun that we want to use in Spanish it makes sense but in English it's a tricky topic to explain because English doesn't have a notion of this I'm just using this comparison to visually show gustar as closely as I can in English nonetheless whenever we say

> **[on-screen 01:26:49]**
> Gustar - To be pleased by something Me gusta - It pleases me Me gustan - They please me

**[01:26:50]** megusta or mean we're not necessarily saying I like but rather we're saying it pleases me or they please me and we know

> **[on-screen 01:26:57]**
> Gustar - To be pleased by something Me gusta - It pleases me Me gustan - They please me

**[01:26:57]** to use pleases with it and please with they because it's the syntax in English gusta refers to it pleases plus any pronoun you want and gustan refers to they please plus any pronoun you want the phrase mea B doesn't necessarily

> **[on-screen 01:27:09]**
> Gustar - To be pleased by something Me gusta bailar - It pleases me to dance

**[01:27:11]** mean I like to dance but rather it pleases me to dance which is a translation that's far more logical in English then I like to dance if I say

> **[on-screen 01:27:19]**
> Gustar - To be pleased by something Me gusta bailar - It pleases me to dance Te gusta cantar - It pleases you to sing

**[01:27:19]** I'm saying it pleases you to sing which doesn't automat ially mean you like the sing gusta in both cases refers to the

> **[on-screen 01:27:24]**
> Gustar - To be pleased by something Me gusta bailar - It pleases me to dance Te gusta cantar - It pleases you to sing Gusta in both cases refers to the infinitive because the indirect object pronoun is being pleased by the infinitive, so gusta will always refer to it

**[01:27:25]** infinitive because the indirect object pronoun is being pleased by the infinitive and therefore gusta will always refer to it just like in English pleases refers to it and please refers to they we don't say in English it please or they pleases we quite literally say the opposite and that's exactly how gustar Works in Spanish if we say a sentence like mean Gatos then

> **[on-screen 01:27:42]**
> Gustar - To be pleased by something Me gustan gatos

> **[on-screen 01:27:44]**
> Gustar - To be pleased by something Me gustan gatos Ns

**[01:27:44]** we're using gustan because the continuation is a noun that's plural and if we put this phrase in English we would have they please me but because we

> **[on-screen 01:27:49]**
> Gustar - To be pleased by something Me gustan gatos They please me

**[01:27:50]** have cats as the noun we would say cats please me and so the phrase doesn't really mean I like cats but rather cats please me however what if we have a

> **[on-screen 01:27:58]**
> Gustar - To be pleased by something Me gusta bailar y cantar

**[01:27:58]** sentence like mea B in this case some people might think to use gustan because the continuation is plural but actually this sentence can be broken down into two separate phrases like megusta B and

> **[on-screen 01:28:09]**
> Gustar - To be pleased by something Me gusta bailar y cantar Me gusta bailar Me gusta cantar

**[01:28:10]** mea which shows that we don't need to use gustan because nothing is plural it's the same thing as saying it pleases

> **[on-screen 01:28:14]**
> Gustar - To be pleased by something It pleases me to dance and to sing It pleases me to dance It pleases me to sing

**[01:28:15]** me to dance and to sing which can be said as one phrase in English or be broken down separately which still doesn't change the it pleases part overall the same concept basically applies to any pronoun you want to say along with any continuation that you want to use and here are some examples

> **[on-screen 01:28:28]**
> Examples With Gustar: Me gusta hablar contigo

**[01:28:29]** Meo would literally mean it pleases me

> **[on-screen 01:28:31]**
> Examples With Gustar: Me gusta hablar contigo It pleases me to speak with you

**[01:28:32]** to speak with you but if we want to use gustan we can say something like

> **[on-screen 01:28:36]**
> Examples With Gustar: Me gustan tus palabras

**[01:28:36]** meas and in this case we would use gustan because the sentence would be

> **[on-screen 01:28:40]**
> Examples With Gustar: Me gustan tus palabras Your words please me

**[01:28:40]** your words please me with the word please in the sentence saying a sentence likea would literally mean the house

> **[on-screen 01:28:45]**
> Examples With Gustar: Te gusta la casa

> **[on-screen 01:28:47]**
> Examples With Gustar: Te gusta la casa The house pleases you

**[01:28:47]** pleases you with the house being it which pleases you saying a sentence like

> **[on-screen 01:28:51]**
> Examples With Gustar: A él le gusta jugar futbol

**[01:28:52]** who got football would literally mean it

> **[on-screen 01:28:54]**
> Examples With Gustar: A él le gusta jugar futbol It pleases him to play football

**[01:28:54]** pleases him to play football with him being the construction a because we have to remember that we don't know who Le refers to without this construction we can also say something like no gusta

> **[on-screen 01:29:03]**
> Examples With Gustar: Nos gusta hablar espanol

**[01:29:04]** which would be it pleases us to speak

> **[on-screen 01:29:05]**
> Examples With Gustar: Nos gusta hablar espanol It pleases us to speak Spanish

**[01:29:06]** Spanish and we can also say is which

> **[on-screen 01:29:08]**
> Examples With Gustar: Les gusta escuchar a musica

**[01:29:10]** would be it pleases them to listen to

> **[on-screen 01:29:11]**
> Examples With Gustar: Les gusta escuchar a musica It pleases them to listen to music

**[01:29:12]** music you can say any sentence you want using the verb gust but as I said at the beginning of the video instead of saying phrases like mea B we can say yo Amo B

> **[on-screen 01:29:19]**
> Me gustabailar Yo amo bailar

**[01:29:20]** which would mean I love to dance rather than I like to dance or it pleases me to dance and the same idea applies to any pronoun you want to use in this video I wanted to show you how the verb gustar Works in Spanish so that you can understand how the verb Works in English rather than explain gustar as to like I decided to give a different perspective on this verb to show how it's closely related to English so this video was more of a logical presentation of how gustar looks like in English sometimes there are Concepts that are more practical to Know Than to use and I would say that gustar falls into this
