Gustar

Use gustar to talk about things or activities that someone likes.

For beginners, you can translate me gusta as “I like.”

But the Spanish structure works differently from English.

In English:

I like coffee.

In Spanish:

Me gusta el café.

A useful way to understand this is:

The coffee is pleasing to me.

You do not need to translate it this way every time, but it helps explain why Spanish uses me gusta instead of a normal verb pattern like yo gusto.

The basic pattern

Use:

me / te / le / nos / os / les + gusta / gustan

For example:

• Me gusta el café. — I like coffee.
• Te gusta la música. — You like music.
• Le gustan los perros. — He / she likes dogs.

The small word before gusta tells you who likes something.

Who likes it?	Pronoun	Example
I	me	me gusta
you	te	te gusta
he / she / you formal	le	le gusta
we	nos	nos gusta
you plural, informal in Spain	os	os gusta
they / you plural	les	les gusta

Gusta or gustan?

Choose gusta or gustan by looking at the thing that is liked, not the person who likes it.

Use gusta with one thing

• Me gusta el café. — I like coffee.
• Le gusta esta película. — He / she likes this film.

Use gustan with plural things

• Me gustan los libros. — I like books.
• Nos gustan estas canciones. — We like these songs.

Compare:

• Me gusta el libro. — I like the book.
• Me gustan los libros. — I like the books.

Notice that me stays the same. Only gusta changes to gustan because los libros is plural.

Gustar + an activity

Use gusta + infinitive to say that someone likes doing something.

• Me gusta bailar. — I like dancing.
• Te gusta cocinar. — You like cooking.
• Nos gusta viajar. — We like traveling.

Even if you mention more than one activity, gusta is commonly used when the activities are understood together:

• Me gusta cantar y bailar. — I like singing and dancing.

Saying who likes something

With gustar, you can add a + person to say exactly who likes something.

The a here has the idea of “to someone.”

A useful way to understand the structure is:

A Marta le gusta el café.≈ Coffee is pleasing to Marta.

So the pattern is:

a + person + me / te / le / nos / os / les + gusta / gustan

• A Marta le gusta el café. — Marta likes coffee.
• A Pablo le gustan los perros. — Pablo likes dogs.
• A mis padres les gusta viajar. — My parents like traveling.

The pronoun is still required:

• ✅ A Marta le gusta el café.
• ❌ A Marta gusta el café.

Adding a + person is especially useful with le and les, because they do not tell us exactly who the person is.

For example:

Le gusta el café.

could mean:

• He likes coffee.
• She likes coffee.
• You (formal) like coffee.

You can also use a + pronoun for emphasis or contrast:

• A mí me gusta el café. — I like coffee.
• A ti te gusta el té. — You like tea.

This is one use of the Spanish preposition a. See the preposition a for other common uses, including the personal a.

Negative sentences

Put no before the pronoun:

• No me gusta correr. — I don’t like running.
• No le gustan los gatos. — He / she doesn’t like cats.

Common mistake

Do not use gustar like English like.

• ❌ Yo gusto el café.
• ✅ Me gusta el café.

Also remember:

• Me gusta el libro.
• Me gustan los libros.

The form gusta / gustan depends on what is liked.

Similar verbs

Several common Spanish verbs use the same basic pattern as gustar.

The pronoun tells you who experiences the feeling or reaction, and the verb agrees with the thing that causes it.

Some useful examples are:

• encantar — to love
• interesar — to interest
• molestar — to bother
• importar — to matter
• doler — to hurt

For example:

• Me encanta esta canción. — I love this song.
• Me encantan estas canciones. — I love these songs.
• Te interesa la historia. — You are interested in history.
• Nos interesan los idiomas. — We are interested in languages.
• Le molesta el ruido. — The noise bothers him / her.
• No me importa. — I don’t mind / It doesn’t matter to me.
• Me duele la cabeza. — My head hurts.
• Me duelen las piernas. — My legs hurt.

The same idea applies:

Who experiences it? → me, te, le, nos, os, les

What causes the feeling or reaction? → determines whether the verb is singular or plural.

Compare:

• Me encanta el libro.
• Me encantan los libros.

Just like with gustar, do not choose the verb form based on the person.

Quick rule

With gustar and similar verbs:

me / te / le / nos / os / les + singular or plural verb

For gustar:

• one thing or an activity → gusta
• plural things → gustan

So:

Me gustan los libros.

• me = I am the person who likes them
• gustan = los libros is plural

Use mucho or un poco to show intensity and también or tampoco to agree with someone.