Gustar - Basics (1)
A reader wrote who thought gustar was always conjugated as "gusta" and asked when to use "gustan". To answer the question, I've taken an excerpt from the Gustar topic in our StartSpanish program. Here's a slightly shorter version:
You'll have better luck at the beginning with this verb if you think of it as meaning 'please' or 'be pleasing'. You'll see why in a moment. First, you need to learn these words:
me (to me) nos (to us)
te (to you) os (to you *plural)
le (to him / her / usted) les (to them / ustedes)
In the examples below, the translations are somewhat literal and show the Spanish way of expressing the idea. They are meant to be a tool since you probably would not say it that way in English. Notice that to follow this literal translation, you have to start at the end of the sentence in Spanish:
1. Singular (one book): Me gusta el libro. (the book is pleasing to me)
2. Plural(more than one book): Me gustan los libros. (the books are pleasing to me)
3. Verbs: Me gusta comer. (to eat is pleasing to me) Notice that the additional verb is always in the infinitive form with no verb endings. That means the verb following gustar - in this example 'comer', will always be comer and not 'como, comes, come', etc.
In other words, gustar only shows up as gusta (singular and verbs) or gustan (plural objects).
In another post, I'll describe what you do when putting in a third person: for example, "Pepe likes to eat" as opposed to "I like to eat". it can be a bit tricky.
Brad
