Use of plural definite article when translating from English without any article

Question

Apologies if this is already answered but there are a lot of questions to sort none of which seem an exact match.

I translated: "I like long walks.." to: "Me gusta caminatas.." but I was corrected to: "Me gusta las caminatas.." My question is, why, if an article is needed, it is not an indefinite article?. In English I would have thought that omission of an article implies "indefinite" i.e:

Indefinite Sing: a walk Pl: walks

Definite Sing: the walk Pl: the walks

Maybe it just sounds more Spanish to use the definite article in this case?

Oh - Feliz Navidad a todos..

Answer 1

Hi Good question. OK, first, regardless of article or not, it would have been "Me gustaN las ..." since the object is plural here.

Second, in short, using the article here, is just how Spanish speakers talk. More specifically, when taking about groups of things in general, or general likes and dislikes, Spanish Will use the definite article, even though English doesn't. I like Mexican food. Me gusts la comida mexicana. I love bacon. Me encanta el tocino. Hope that helps. Feliz Navidad

Thanks rog - almost perfect - franco (and I) missed the "gustan" bit also. I will blame an auto correction feature for turning "la comida" into "LA comics" though :) Happy Christmas - Ansionnach, Dec 25, 2012

Darn auto correct. its killing my already marginal Spanish. - rogspax, Dec 25, 2012