I'm looking for opinions regarding gustar and other like/love verbs with people.

Question

"Me gustas" has always meant "I find you attractive" in my mind, but what about "me gusta mi familia" would it be better to say "quiero a mi familia" or "me caye bien mi familia". And while I'm asking, could you say "me encanta mi familia"? And then to say you really like a friend (no romantic attraction) is caerse bien the only option or is it appropriate to use querer? I hope to hear from many members. Thanks for your thoughts.

I have questions about this too! Is it appropriate to use "encanta" to express my feelings about my little son? - kittybrougham, Oct 12, 2009

I usually use "encantar" to say I love pizza or a new CD. - lachelvi, Dec 25, 2009

Answer 1

"Me gustas" has always meant "I find you attractive" in my mind,

Well, that certainly depends on context. me gusta Pedro can mean that, but me gusta mi profesor de mates, simply means you like him as a teacher.

but what about "me gusta mi familia" would it be better to say "quiero a mi familia" or "me caye bien mi familia".

Me cae bien is not used for family connections. Caer bien means something like he/she is a good guy, nice person.

Mi profe me cae bien, Eddy me cae bien.

Querer es love , I love my family, quiero a mi familia.

And while I'm asking, could you say "me encanta mi familia"?

Encantar is to adore, so yes, you can.

And then to say you really like a friend (no romantic attraction) is caerse bien the only option or is it appropriate to use querer?

Tricky, as querer can mean love. But we normally use the word mucho , funnily enough, to indicate it is not romantic.

Quiero mucho a Emilia. I like her a lot(as a friend) Pedro es muy majo, le quiero mucho. he is very nice and I like him a lot as a friend.

if you said: Pedro es muy majo. Le quiero. Everybody would understand something romantic is involved.

If you wanted to say "I get along well with my family", would caer bien fit for that? - eagleswing865, Jun 20, 2011

@ eagleswing86: I think "Nos llevamos bien." would work best for saying "We get along well." - lachelvi, Nov 19, 2011

Answer 2

Aquí lo que me escribió una profesora de Argentina:

En relacion a la consulta de gustar... siempre he dicho que la mejor traduccion es, gustar: "to like"... por eso yo prefiero no usarlo con personas... porque pueden mal interpretarse...

Puedo decir, me gusta esta contigo, me gusta tu personalidad... etc.etc.... dentro de los que hablan español como lengua materna hay muchas interpretaciones (algunas con sentido sexual..." por eso conviene ser preciso al decir que algo te gusta de una persona...

Me gusta tu voz, me gusta tu sonrisa... no me gustan tus piernas... etc...

Answer 3

Here's an answer a Chilean friend emailed me:

gustar: en chile se dice " me gustas"... cuando quieres decirle a alguien something like "i have feelings for you"... no es lo mismo que decir "i like you"... por que eso sería como friendly...

me gustas, significa que esa persona te atrae...

Excepto.. si dices... "me gusta como te ves hoy" o "me gusta tu polera"... una cualidad de la persona...pero si dices que te gusta la persona... then is more like you have romantic feelings for that person...

Answer 4

When I like something, I just say Me gusta esto o la otra. Me cae is something I don't use too much. It doesn't have much emotion to it in my mind, I generally use that for something I don't like. Pues, bueno...I like it means I like it. Me gusta is more than sufficient in my vocabulary. Somethings in spanish you want to be clearly understood. While I enjoy colorful language as much as the next guy, sometimes I just want to be understood. Mi gusta mi familia, mi mamita, mis las dos hermanas, that's clear. Using encanta or quiere is kinda a bit too much for the circumstances you describe, in my way of speech. That doesn't mean it's wrong...just not my way of speech. If it's what you want to say, then by all means, say it!

I agree with chamacomalo, you also have to take into consideration of the "context" of what you are trying to express and how you personally speak to/of your family. - cheeseisyummy, Oct 12, 2009

Answer 5

gustar/encantar are not really romantic attraction verbs. Querer and amar are used for that.

"quiero a mi familia" would be wrong to use as in "I like my family", it denotes more something like "I want/am attracted to my family" in my opinion.

You could say "me encanta mi familia" meaning I love my family, but it does not conotate "sexual attraction".

I am not native so I could be wrong, but this is all my interpretation.