Gustar & Similar Verbs
Verbos como gustar
Verbs that work backwards: me gusta, me encanta, me falta.
The rule
Gustar works backwards from English: the thing liked is the SUBJECT and the person is an indirect object: 'Me gusta el café' is literally "coffee pleases me". Two consequences. First, the verb agrees with the THING, not the person: gusta + singular or infinitive ('Me gusta pasear', even with two infinitives: 'Me gusta cocinar y leer'), gustan + plural ('Me gustan los parques'). Second, the person appears as an indirect-object pronoun: me, te, le, nos, os, les.
Because le/les is ambiguous, Spanish adds the a-phrase to clarify or emphasise: 'A Teo le encanta el agua', 'A mí me gusta, ¿y a ti?'. Note it duplicates the pronoun, never replaces it, and it's 'a mí', never «a yo». The same machinery drives a whole family: encantar (love: no muy/mucho needed, it's already superlative), doler (hurt, o→ue: me duele la cabeza / me duelen los pies), molestar (bother), parecer (seem), faltar (be missing), quedar (suit/fit: te queda bien).
Examples
Me gusta el café con leche.
I like coffee with milk. (singular thing → gusta)
Me gustan los días de sol.
I like sunny days. (plural thing → gustan)
A Teo le encanta el baño.
Teo loves bath time. (a-phrase + le, both together)
Me duelen los pies de tanto caminar.
My feet hurt from all the walking. (doler agrees with los pies)
¿Te parece bien a las cinco?
Does five o'clock seem OK to you? (parecer takes the same pattern)
Try it yourself
Three quick questions, straight from the app. No sign-up needed.
Me ___ los parques con sombra.
I like parks with shade.
All 12 Gustar & Similar Verbs questions, free in Hablaba
Hablaba spots this exact rule in your real conversations and points you back to the quiz for it. The drills feed the speaking, which is the point of the whole app.
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