Use of "a" before a noun?
Victor y Catalina les gusta bailar. - Victor and Catalina like to dance.
In the sentence above is "bailar" a noun? If it is doesn't it need the "a" before it?
"a balar"
A second reason to use the "a" is because "bailar" is indicating movement? I am not sure, what do you think?
13 Answers
I believe your sentence "Victor y Catalina les gusta bailar" is correct, that the translation "Victor and Catalina like to dance" expresses the meaning and that no "a" is needed before "bailar". Bailar is an infinitive and means to dance. You probably do not want to say " to to dance". But this misses some important points and there certainly are some rules for the use of gustar.
Take the sentence "Me gusta comida Mexicana." We might translate this as "I like Mexican food" and that would express the meaning but, it would not translate the meaning grammatically. The actual grammatically correct translation of the is sentence is "Mexican food is pleasing to me" and the difference is important. Note that in the English "I" is the subject, "like" is the verb and "Mexican food" is the object of the verb. In Spanish the subject is "Mexican food" and the verb is "is" or "is pleasing". (Me is the indirect object.) Thus, in sentences with gustar, the subject is something (including someone) that is or some things that are pleasing. Because of this there are only two conjugated forms of gustar that are used - gusta (when the subject (the something or someone) is singular and gustan when the subject is plural. So it would be "Me gustan tacos" since the subject "tacos" is plural. The verb gustar is proceded by an indirect object pronoun to indicate to whom the subject is pleasing. That is why you used "les" in your sentence.
No bailar is a verb. - because in Spanish you can not use "dancing" as a noun as we can in English (They like dancing) so they use the infintive verb Bailar.
Good info. above from everyone, but you still need the "a" before the indirect object when it is specified, e.g. "(A Victor y Catalina) les gusta bailar" and "(A él" or "a Juan") le gusta bailar." Hope that makes sense...
"Bailar" like "to dance" is a verb.
So, we are going TO dance - vamos A bailar.
They like to dance or they like dancing - (a) ellos les gusta bailar.
When we are refering to an action that we like, we use the singular form of GUSTAR (GUSTA) plus the verb in its infinitive form.
Me gusta estudiar (I like to study) Te gusta jugar (You like to play) Le gusta comer (He likes to eat) Nos gusta correr (We like to run) Les gusta caminar (They like to walk) so it would be "Les gusta bailar."
I'm not yet certain of any "rule" that I can confidently cite, but it looks as if "gustar" when followed by an infinitive, does not need the Spanish preposition for "to" to be spoken or written.
...les gusta bailar (does not require the preposition "a"
- Les gusta ir a bailar (does require the preposition "a"
Jay had a good catch. When the indirect object pronoun and gustar, e.g. "les gusta" are proceeded by a prepositional phrase to clarify or emphasize who the indirect object pronoum refers to, that phrase starts with the preposition 'A' as in "A mi me gusta comida Mexicana" or "A Victor y Catalina les gusta bailar". This should not be confused with using 'a' before the infinitive such as bailar where the 'a' should not be used.
..a ellos, les gusta bailar.
I have no idea of the grammar, but this option sounds better and even occurs as a song title. That's the personal ' a'. There is no need for an ' a ' in front of the verb.
Remember...whenever gustar is followed by a verb (in it's infinitive form) the "to" is understood. Le gust bailar. He likes (to) dance. Thus, dancing is pleasing to him. Since dancing is pleasing to him...we find commonality in English (He likes dancing) The thought is always more important than the wording. You take care my friend. That was a good question.
A can be used before a noun. examples: Vamos a trabajar a brazo partido. let´s work our butt´s off (colloquial equivalence not grammatical) Vamos a casa= Let´s go home.
http://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=a brazo partido
A mi= to me / A ti/ to you/ A él/ to him/ A ella/ to her/A ello/ to it/ A nosotros/ to us/ A ellos/ to them.
Bailar is a verb not a noun. A bailar means Let's dance or simply to dance.. A trabajar means to work. A.¿Adónde vas? B. A trabajar. A Where do you go? B. To work.
In addition to Kirk's excellent comments, the phrase in the question "Victor y Catalina les gusta bailar" can be translated as "to dance is pleasing to Victor and Catalina". If you look at it that way, this is one of those instaces in which an infinitive form of the verb is being used as a noun.
In English, we would more normally use the gerund form, and say "Dancing is pleasing...". In Spanish, this isn't done, (you can't say "les gusta bailando"), and so the infinitive must be used. This is another example of the diference between the English gerund and the Spanish gerundio.
