singular/plurarl with gustar

Question

We learned that if the subject being liked is plural, then you use the plural form of gustar, such as: me gusta el perro, but me gustan los perros.

The agreement is with perro, not me.

However, today our professor said if you are talking about "La gente", as in A la gente, le gusta el perro, you do not change gustar to match the subject. So it would be a la gente, le gusta los perros. I do not understand this. He said it is because gente is singular, which I understand, but why are we worried about that number? 'Me" is singular also. Am I making sense?

It's an exception for "la gente", it seems. Does anyone know about this?

Answer 1

Are you sure he wasn't just trying to explain that although we think of "people" as being plural in English, "gente" is singular in Spanish, so it takes the singular indirect object pronoun "le" and not the plural form "les"?

A la gente le gusta el perro.

A la gente le gustan los perros.

Another example:

A mi madre le gusta el perro.

A mi madre le gustan los perros.

But, "mis amigos", for example, takes the plural indirect object "les":

A mis amigos les gusta el perro.

A mis amigos les gustan los perros.

Well explained Tosh, just what I was thinking but couldn't put it together like you did. - kenwilliams, Jun 6, 2013

good explanation, it should be a la gente 'le' gustan los perros - the difference being that in English we view 'the people' as plural but this isn't the case in Spanish - Kiwi-Girl, Jun 7, 2013

Answer 2

Creo que el verbo gustarle siempre muestra concordancia con el sujeto. I think that the verb gustarle always agrees with the subject (that is, the thing "being liked").

ejemplos A la gente le gusta el perro. A la gente le gustan los perros.

No creo que exista una excepción para "la gente."

tienes razón, no hay excepción con esa palabra - diagonx, Jun 6, 2013

Answer 3

It should be a la gente le gustan los perros. No exception here

quite right :) - Kiwi-Girl, Jun 7, 2013