Gustar - Part 2

In my last post about Gustar, I covered some of the basics that you need to know. In this post we're going to put the finishing touches on our look at gustar.

We now know that gustar changes it's meaning to one of physical attraction when you use it in reference to people. But there is an exception to this. If you're talking about people you don't personally know, like public or celebrity figures, authors, atheletes and the like, it reverts back to it's meaning of "to please". 

Me gusta Angelina Jolie - I like Angelia Jolie

¿Te gusta Micheal Jackson? - Do you like Micheal Jackson?

¿Le gusta George Lopez? - Does he/she like George Lopez?

Easy enough right?

Now let's look at one last quirk with gustar. It's conjugated a little differently when you talk about more than one thing or person. I touched on this just a little in my last post with the example:

Me gustan a ellas - I find them attractive.

Now let's look at this in more detail. Remember the example "Me gusta el libro"? We're only talking about one book, so we use "gusta". But if you need to talk about more than one book, we need to make a minor change to our example:

Me gustan los libros - The books are pleasing to me, or I like the books

Notice the "n" - gustaN instead of gusta. Anytime you want to talk about more than one of something, you need to use gustan. Let's look at some contrasting examples:

Me gusta el carro - I like the car

Me gustan los carros - I like the cars

Me gusta la camisa - I like the shirt

Me gustan las camisas - I like the shirts

Pretty simple eh? Just remember that whatever it is you like also has to be in the plural form.

That's pretty much it!

Now, I haven't covered every single detail of the verb gustar, but I've covered all of the "big ticket" items you need to help you start using this sometimes tricky but very necessary Spanish verb.

If you find yourself confused by any of the grammar surrounding gustar, don't worry about it. Just remember that gusta is for one of something, and gustan for more than one. Of course gustar has the same conjugations as other verbs, but I imagine you will find yourself using the forms gusta and gustan far more than the others. With that in mind, memorize these two forms, use them as much as possible, and sooner or later it's all going to make sense, including the grammar, ¡Les prometo! (I promise)

I mentioned this in my first post, but it's worth repeating.  If you want to really master the verb Gustar, then take a look at a course called Learning Spanish Like Crazy 2.  The course has over 30 lessons with 3 of them dedicated to the verb Gustar and other verbs that work in the same fashion.   If you're learning Spanish on your own, then you definitely want to take a look at it. 

¡Nos vemos!