What you need to say before you use "Gustar"?
I can speak a good amount of Spanish but theres one little detail that i'm confused on. When I'm talking to one of my Spanish friends and I need to say I like something, I say "Yo me gusta" but I've also heard people say "A mi me gusta". What is right? does it matter?
2 Answers
"A mí me gusta" would be correct.
The grammatical reason is that the "me" in "me gusta" represents the indirect object of the sentence; i.e. the speaker (in this case) is the recipient of the pleasurable feeling which is caused by the subject of the sentence. Said another way, the speaker is the person for whom something (the subject of the sentence) is pleasurable.
Because the speaker represents the indirect object of the sentence, it is necessary to avoid the use of the subject pronoun "yo" (because it would erroneously mark the speaker as the subject of the sentence).
You might also want to bear in mind that the repetition of the indirect object here, as in "a mí", is usually done as an emphatic device (i.e. to add emphasis). In the same way, you wouldn't want to go around using the subject pronoun "yo" before each verb (because it would generally be placing undue emphasis on the speaker).
That being said, you should still bear in mind the fact that in uses of verbs like gustar, it would be "a mí" rather than "yo" to describe how you, as the speaker of the sentence, feel about something. This is especially important as sentences are often abbreviated simply for the sake of economy. For example:
1). Juan le gustan pero a mí, no. vs Juan le gustan pero a mí, no me gustan.
Juan likes them, but I don't. vs. Juan likes them, but I don't like them.
2). Juan—Me gustan las naranjas....Paco—A mí, también (rather than Yo también)
Juan: I like oranges...Paco: Me too/I do too (rather than "I too")
3). Juan—No me gusta dibujar...Paco—A mí, tampoco (rather than Yo también)
Juan: I don't like to draw...Paco: Me neither/I don't either (rather than "I neither")
A mi me gusta is correct form.
