Me Gusta.. help!!
Hi... i've just finished the 1.6 lesson, where you learn to conjugate the "gustar" verb.
If i'm saying "me gustar bailar", shouldn't it be "me GUSTO bailar"''...
that whole lesson didn't really make sense...
15 Answers
Think of the verb "disgust" in English. You say "Chocolate disgusts me", and not "I disgust chocolate". "Gustar" is used exactly the same (and it is not coincidence that disgust and gustar share the same root): you say "El chocolate me gusta" and not "(Yo) gusto el chocolate". Can you see the parallelism?
Making a sentence like "Me gusto bailar" would be like saying "I disgust myself chocolate".
Janice said:
...and if "Chocalate" is a Labrador puppy?
It´s enough that "Chocolate" be a proper noun. Be assured that Lazarus knows this but he tends to shy away from using grammatical terminology. (je je)
...and if "Chocalate" is a Labrador puppy?
lazarus1907 said:
Ian Francis Hill said:
Try to think of the verb Gustar as "to appeal to" in English."Me gusta chocolate" becomes "Chocolate appeals to me".
Francis, you must use an article (or any other determinant) for generic subjects:Me gusta el chocolate.Unless "Chocolate" is a person, of course.Anyway, if "disgust" is clearly related to "disgustar", and they both are used exactly the same, why is it so difficult for people to use "disgustar" (or "gustar") as they'd use "disgust" in English?
>
Thank you Lazarus - I am still learning.
lazarus1907 said:
Ian Francis Hill said:
Try to think of the verb Gustar as "to appeal to" in English."Me gusta chocolate" becomes "Chocolate appeals to me".
Francis, you must use an article (or any other determinant) for generic subjects:Me gusta el chocolate.Unless "Chocolate" is a person, of course.Anyway, if "disgust" is clearly related to "disgustar", and they both are used exactly the same, why is it so difficult for people to use "disgustar" (or "gustar") as they'd use "disgust" in English?
>
I must admit to a certain culpability in promoting this as a way of understanding the use of "gustar" in Spanish
Don't get me wrong; I think it's a brilliant idea, and it's a wonderful way to illustrate how gustar works. I was just answering Lazarus' question about why people seem to have so much trouble, despite our having a similar verb. I sensed some frustration on his part, but I think the difficulty is perfectly understandable.
By the way, the quote you ascribe to me in your post above is not mine, but Lazarus'.
James Santiago said:
Anyway, if "disgust" is clearly related to "disgustar", and they both are used exactly the same, why is it so difficult for people to use "disgustar" (or "gustar") as they'd use "disgust" in English'
I must admit to a certain culpability in promoting this as a way of understanding the use of "gustar" in Spanish (Francis' "appeal" would also work but lacks the obvious etymological relevancy). Clearly, one can respond to questions such as "Why does Spanish have this weird (backward) construction for "gustar" instead of doing things the way we do in English (as everyone should do) by simply saying "It's not English; live with it!"
However, underlying the English speaker's objection, is the notion that this is a really weird way to say something and that is, simply, not the case. We have similar constructions in English. Less frequently used, perhaps, (as you point out than "It's disgusting!") but, nonetheless, not "foreign-sounding" to most English ears.
As long as students persist in asking "Why isn't this said the way it is in English (or whatever language)'", we will be faced with the choice of answering either "Because, that's the way it is." or (in some cases) providing an (possibly) infrequently used parallel construction.
Anyway, if "disgust" is clearly related to "disgustar", and they both are used exactly the same, why is it so difficult for people to use "disgustar" (or "gustar") as they'd use "disgust" in English'
For one thing, we rarely use the verb disgust in speech (although the adjective disgusting is very common), so many people probably aren't that familiar with the word. For another, the verb "to like" is extremely common, and in fact is one of the first verbs we learn as infants (whose first sentence is often "No like!"), so the idea that the subject of the sentence is "I" (or whoever is doing the liking) is deeply ingrained in native English speakers. It is natural that beginners to Spanish should have trouble dealing with the switch in subject, and it just takes time for a person to fully comprehend this new way of looking at an old friend.
Ian Francis Hill said:
Try to think of the verb Gustar as "to appeal to" in English. "Me gusta chocolate" becomes "Chocolate appeals to me".
Francis, you must use an article (or any other determinant) for generic subjects:
Me gusta el chocolate.
Unless "Chocolate" is a person, of course.
Anyway, if "disgust" is clearly related to "disgustar", and they both are used exactly the same, why is it so difficult for people to use "disgustar" (or "gustar") as they'd use "disgust" in English'
Try to think of the verb Gustar as "to appeal to" in English.
"Me gusta chocolate" becomes "Chocolate appeals to me".
If you are interested have a look at this, I hope it will help you to understand the verb better.
[url=http://my.spanishdict.com/vocabulary/vocabulary/show'id=1710195%3ATermList%3A796411]use of the verb gustar[/url]
Easy: ask yourself this:
When do I use "I disgust" in English?
The answer is the same in Spanish. Can you provide any sentence with "I disgust"? Post it here, replace it with "(Yo) gusto", and you'll have a valid sentence in Spanish.
Ok, when yould you use "Yo gusto" '
Practice the verb "disgust" in English, and when you think you can use it with ease, use "gustar" and "disgustar" the same way in Spanish.
thanks guys...
i think i'll do the lesson again and have a look in the forum for threads with "gustar".. i just can't seem to grasp this thing!
No, it should be "Me gusta bailar." the grammatical subject of the sentence is "bailar". The translation in English that mirrors the Spanish syntax would be "Dancing pleases me" or "To dance pleases me." If you do a search of the forum for "gustar", you will find many threads that treat the subject in greater detail.
