We would like with condition

Question

I was thinking about conjugation for the sentence “I would like a table for two.”, “Me Gustaría una mesa para dos.” where it seems “Gustaría” is the “I personally” present tense conditional form of gustar (to like) which makes sense.

I wanted to shift that to “We would like a table for two.” and thought that “Nosotros gustaríamos” could be used to kick off the request. However, I am seeing online that translations are calling for “Nos gustaría”. What is the best way to say this and why?

Thanks (todos) in advance. I have been learning Spanish for about four months and this is my first post.

Welcome to SpanishDict. - rac1, Jan 8, 2017

Answer 1

Remember, gustar is conjugated to what does the pleasing:

Me gustaría una mesa para dos. A table for two would be pleasing to me.

Una mesa para dos is the subject of gustar here.

Remember it would be me gusta, not me gusto. I know gustaría is first person and third person, but in your sentence it is third person, not first. And it is "me" not "yo" - "to me" not "I".

So "nos gustaría una mesa para dos" A table for two would be pleasing to us.

For redundant emphasis you could say "a nosotros nos gustaría" just as you could say "a mí me gustaría" (note still no yo, nosotros just happens to be the object of preposition pronoun as well as the subject pronoun).

Nos gustaríamos would mean we would be pleasing to ourselves.

Nosotros gustaríamos is just bad grammar.

Great answer. Since “gustar” is conjugated on the “table for five”, then the condition is for “for five” and the “table” is a single object. I wonder what context “gustaríamos” could be used - perhaps: “they would like us to go home”? - Al_Carbón, Jan 8, 2017

Maybe: Si fuéramos más altos, le gustaríamos más a ella. If we were taller, we would be more pleasing to her. (she would find us more attractive, like us more). - bosquederoble, Jan 8, 2017

Also occasionally you will see gustar used "backwards" (the same order we use to like). I probably would not emulate it as a learner though. - bosquederoble, Jan 8, 2017

they would like us to go home= les gustaría que (nos) vayamos a casa I think. - bosquederoble, Jan 8, 2017

Do keep in mind with gustar the way I used it with gustaríamos, this would generally imply a romantic/physical attraction- gustar used with people generally implies like in that way, like as a friend/person is done differently in Spanish. - bosquederoble, Jan 8, 2017

This last comment has me thinking that “Querer” is the better choice for these types of requests (ie. a table at a restaurant.) “Queremos una mesa para dos.” also makes more sense to me in terms of conjugation. - Al_Carbón, Jan 9, 2017

However, from my own perspective, being a native English speaking person, it sounds like barking a command, or at least a less polite way to say, “We would like a table for two”. - Al_Carbón, Jan 9, 2017

That said, the “Querer” conjugation makes a lot more sense and without less risk of coming off offensive out of context. - Al_Carbón, Jan 9, 2017