A la niña le gustan los caballos - direct/indirect object

Question

I have read on spanish dict the section about direct and indirect object pronoun. So, I think I've understand it a bit. I have question about below sentence:

A la niña le gustan los caballos = the girl like horses

The sentence above is direct object, isnt it? And, so, shouldn't it use 'lo'? or, since the object is Horses (plural), it should use 'los".

So, shouldn't it be: A la niña los gustan los caballos

I also not clear about the use of "A" before the word "la niña". "A" basically means "to". So, if I translate the sentence word-by-word, it will be: to the girl, she likes horses.

Is it roughly right?

Answer 1

Me gustan los caballos = I like horses. "Me" is the indirect object pronoun.

So, this sentence literally reads, "to me the horses are pleasing". This is usually easier for English-speakers to wrap their head around how "gustar" (and other verbs like it) works.

All indirect object pronouns are in bold and they agree with whom the horses are pleasing:

¿Te gustan los caballos? = Do you like horses? Literally = To you are the horses pleasing?

With "me" and "te", it is pretty obvious who you are talking about. Me, and you.

With "le" and "les" it may be obvious with context, but if you want to specify (or if you want to be emphatic with "me" or "te") you can say who you are talking about with, for example, "A ella...":

A ella le gustan los caballos = To her the horses are pleasing. (She likes horses.)

A las mujeres les gustan los caballos = To the women the horses are pleasing. (The women like horses.)

A mi hermana le gustan los caballos = To my sister the horses are pleasing. (My sister likes horses).

A mí me gustan los caballos = I (emphatically) like horses.

A ti te gustan los caballos = You (emphatically) like horses.

Remember, it is "ti"... not tí. "tí" (with an accent) is not a word.

This has got to be at least the third question on "gustar" this week - and it's only Wednesday! - geofc, Nov 15, 2012