The many "Gustas"
Help me with this:
I know this much here:
I like = Me gusta
You like = Te gusta
They like = Le gusta
But what is "We like" and "He/She likes" and what is the Vosotros/as form of it?
Thank you in advance!
43 Answers
You must of posted that while I was typing, thanks you Rocco!
¡Hola Effjaee y bienvenido a mi tema del foro! After typing up that It came up that it could be "Gustamos y Nos gusta" Could it be both of them? Any answers on the other two I asked for.
Thank you
What about "We like each other" '
Help with these please.
I like them. They like me. (people)
The translation tool here does a lousy job with these two sentences.
According to my sources:
I like them = [Ellos] me gustan
They like me = [Yo] les gusto
As usual, the grammar is easy to figure out if you think of "to please":
Ellos me gustan -> they please me
Yo les gusto -> I please them
Help with these please.
I like them. They like me. (people)
I've been taught that we shouldn't use the word "gustar" for people unless you mean it in a romantic or sexual way.
If you want to say that you get along well with a particular person and you like them in a platonic way you'd say "me cae bien Mary" or "me llevo bien con Mary."
What should you say If you just want to say that you like the as a friend?
Would my sentence "Me gusta estar con mis amigos" be a example or have I typed it nown-sexual? I hope I haven't
.
Help with these please.
I like them. They like me. (people)
I've been taught that we shouldn't use the word "gustar" for people unless you mean it in a romantic or sexual way.
If you want to say that you get along well with a particular person and you like them in a platonic way you'd say "me cae bien Mary" or "me llevo bien con Mary."
Interesting Marianne
So how about "I like them" and "They like me" ''
Help with these please.
I like them. They like me. (people)
I've been taught that we shouldn't use the word "gustar" for people unless you mean it in a romantic or sexual way.
If you want to say that you get along well with a particular person and you like them in a platonic way you'd say "me cae bien Mary" or "me llevo bien con Mary."
Help with these please.
I like them. They like me. (people)
The translation tool here does a lousy job with these two sentences.
Thank you all very much for your answers, now I know what to do when it comes to that.
Good "Gustar" Nightmare, Patch!
Could you have done it? Remember - pressure situation - who is "pleasing" who? Or "displeasing" or "disgusting" who?
I wish there was an easier way (sigh)
If "gustar" doesn't work, try "disgust" in English: would you say "They disgust us" or "We disgust them"? Pick the right one, and do the same with "no gustar" in Spanish. I know the meaning of this verb is much worse than "don't like", but in terms of construction, it should do the trick.
My "Gustar nightmare" by Patch
Last year I got talking to a nice Andalucian girl close to where I live (middle of England, and by the way, there are more unicorns than native Spanish speakers around here). She spoke almost no English. Perfect opportunity, then, to practice my Spanish, right? You bet!
So for five minutes we chatted about quite a lot - languages, music, the weather etc etc and I was doing fine! She complimented me on my Spanish! She said that she would like to live in Edinburgh, Scotland. Good idea! I like Scottish people but sometimes...
...THEY DON'T LIKE US...!!!
That was the start of my "Gustar nightmare". Yes I know "A veces no nos llevamos bien" would have avoided the problem altogether but I didn't think of that.
After 30 secs of saying "umm...a ellos...ehhhm...no les gust...mmm...no nos...ehhhhmmmm........" to a bewildered looking Spanish lass - I lost my nerve, made an excuse and went back to the bar.
Could you have done it? Remember - pressure situation - who is "pleasing" who? Or "displeasing" or "disgusting" who?
I wish there was an easier way (sigh)
Patch
Thanks, Lazarus, once again! Lots of information that will take time and practice to master. Another of those things that is easier caught than taught.
I wonder if the same variation/subjectivity exists in Spanish.
It does. The number agreement when there is coordination is sometimes subject to interpretation, and even the position of the words in the sentence (if you start with several coordinated elements, the chances of agreement in plural are much higher).
Me gusta la lengua y la literatura
Here, "la lengua y la literatura" is considered as a whole, so singular is chosen. However, in
El chorizo y la cerveza me gustan mucho
the plural is fine, but if you alter the order of the elements, most people would never use the plural here:
Me gustan mucho el chorizo y la cerveza 
Me gusta mucho el chorizo y la cerveza
Subordinate clauses are always regarded as singular, but if you use coordinated clauses, although there exists the possibility of using a plural agreement, it happens very rarely, and only with infinitives that are regarded practically as common nouns. These sentences are unacceptably weird:
Me gustan nadar y correr
Nadar y correr me gustan
In this case, what you like is a list of activities, no matter how many. But I am sure that one can find an example where you can find something similar in plural, but in most situations, singular agreement is the thing to expect.
With copulative verbs, however, it is easier to do this:
Nadar y correr son actividades saludables
because "ser" makes the left and the right sides of the sentence equal or equivalent, and it would be very weird to say that swimming and running are one activity. Remove "actividades", and you'll be forced to revert to singular again:
Nadar y correr es entrenido
Anyway, agreement rules can get quite tricky if we start considering complex situations.
Good question, Q. Hopefully Lazarus or some other knowing individual will help us with that. Grammatically, it seems like it should be gustan in both instances. But I hear things like you mention: "Me gusta nadar y jugar con mis amigos." I wonder, myself, if that is colloquial, or is that some grammatical feature or construction that we don't know about.
Or, like you say, it could be a matter of perspective, whether the two verbs are considered a unit--that one is done with the other. In English, I could see it both ways:
"Swimming and hanging out with my friends are things I like to do."
"Swimming and hanging out with my friends is something I like to do." (Here the "swimming and hanging out" would be considered one activity done with the friends, kind of like "eating and drinking" or "fussing and fighting.")
I would expect to hear "Fussing and fighting is bad for a marriage" more than "Fussing and fighting are bad for a marriage." They are considered to go hand in hand.
However, "Financial difficulties and infidelity are bad for a marriage." These are not considered to be closely related (necessarily).
I wonder if the same variation/subjectivity exists in Spanish.
