How hard is "gustar"?

Question

I have read many threats but still i feel unclear.i have 2 question:-

1, A tus padres no les gustamos = to/your/father/we are not pleasing."les" represent "to them".The translation of the whole statment show that "your father dont like us".why did we use "les" when it does not play any role in making a statment.because its role is played by  "gustamos"(amos=we)

If i am worng then correct me.

2,te gusto?do you like me?= isnt it confusing. Te = to you , gusto = i pleasing. This show that the translation is "to you i pleasing" then How is "do you like me" formed. why/what is the use of "me","te","les" when it is used with "gusto" ,"gusta","gustan" 

Your father "doesn't" like us. :) - missy8888, Apr 11, 2012

Answer 1

It is a bit confusing but I guess gustar means to taste or to delight or to please. If you say te gusta? you can translate it as "do you like it?" or "is it pleasing you?" which I consider to be a quite jerky translation but the one with "to please" is not as confusing. Because in English you use like as for example "I like you"="me gustas" where "I" is the performer of the action whereas in Spanish the performer of the action is "you" so the meaning of the verb "gustar" can't be translated exactly as "to like" and the most suitable way for me is to translate it as "to please"

Hope you aren't even more confused

vkate, you mixed something up a bit. Instead of "te gusto" -> "I like you", you can say "te gusto" -> "I please you", or "I'm pleasing to you", or even "I delight you". - inkubzz, Apr 11, 2012

fixed ;) - Cachulquin, Nov 16, 2012

Answer 2

Cohan, you'll just have to learn the difference between translation and literal translation. It's very simple. Gustar doesn't literally mean "to like". Literally, it means "to please".

Let's take "me gustas" as an example. As you already know, it means "I like you". However, literally,

(tú) me gustas = you please me (you're pleasing to me);

but that's only the literal translation (whose sole purpose is to clarify things, not to convey meaning).

As per your first question, I think you've already answered it yourself.

les gustamos = we please them (we're pleasing to them) = they like us

And it's the same with the negative form.

Or in other words (for both questions), just accept the fact that expressions like "to like smb/sth" vary across languages and cultures, but the intended meaning is roughly the same.