Gustar--when to use gusta and gustan

Question

I had several students ask this question about gustar--when giving a list of items you like, should you use gustan or gusta, or does it match the first item in the list?

example: Me gustan la limonada y las hamburguesas. or: Me gusta la limonada y las hamburguesas.

My inclination is to have it match the first item, but there are more than one, so I am not sure which to go with.

Answer 1

Technically, grammatically, it should be in plural because the recipient is being pleased by more than one thing (unless you are creating a nuance of giving the first item more importance than the second, ie: "Me gusta la limonada" [pause] "y las hamburguesas"). But I´m not sure if the nuance creation is correct grammar or not, although this is not uncommon.

Note: "En cuanto a los deportes, me gustan la lucha libre, el futbol y la natación." Or "Me gustan los tres - la lucha libre, la natación y el futbol."

Answer 2

You would use gustan....if you are "pleased" by many things than the verb gustar has to be plural...so to use your example..."me gustan la lemonada y las hamburguesas"...this is correct..."gusta" in this example would be incorrect

Answer 3

There are some useful articles here