Put subject at beginning of "gustar" sentences???
I am a non-native Spanish teacher. I do teach that gustar means "to please," but students still have such difficulty using gustar and the indirect object pronouns correctly., even in third year Spanish class! It seems to me that since gustar technically means, "to please," it would be much easier if I taught them to put the subject first, rather than the indirect object + conjugated gustar first. Example: El libro me gusta. However, I don't recall seeing a sentence like this in any kind of book, textbook or otherwise. Is it technically wrong? Would it be wrong to teach them with the subject first and then transition to putting the subject after the form of gustar? Muchas gracias.
3 Answers
Your sentence "El libro me gusta." is grammatically correct, but most Spanish speakers wouldn't say it that way, but It would be OK to share it with your students so that they can get a better grasp of the idea, then show them that the subject actually goes later in the usual speech pattern.
Most of my students even by the end of the first semester don't have a problem with it. It may be because I stress early on that in Spanish, the subject can be the last thing in a sentence.
The biggest problem is teaching them to say "Alex likes Mexican food. " or "Spaniards like to dance." or any other third person construction, so I go through the forms of:
A mí me gusta/n ---------
A ti ge gusta/n-------------
A él/ella/ Pedro? (or any other person) le gusta---------)
Example: A Felipe le gusta jugar al fútbol. A él le gustan los deportes. Al profesor le gusta dar exámenes difíciles.
A nosotros nos gusta/n-----------
A vosotros os gusta/n ----------
A ellos/ellas/ustedes (or any group of names or a collective person word) les gusta/n
Example. A los franceses les gusta comer caracoles. A ellos les gustan las artes también.
"Gustar" is more to like. Of course, "complacer" would also be a possible translation, but not the first choice. Both "el libro me gusta" and "me gusta el libro" are perfect on every level. They are interchangeable and would be understood by all Spanish speakers anytime. The point here is to teach that both ways are equally used. That should be the emphasis. Daniela gives a pretty good answer but stating that "most Spanish speakers wouldn't say it that way" or "the subject actually goes later in the usual speech" is not correct at all. In fact most Spanish speakers would not be able to decide which one is most commonly used.
I usually think "like" is "gustar" ,
As for the rest Daniela is right it seems.
