The gustar experience

You've learned that there are three categories of verbs in the Spanish language, that is, the verbs are categorized by their INFINITIVE FORM endings.  Thus, all verbs are either -AR, -ER, or -IR verbs.  You know how to CONJUGATE these verbs, right?  You remember the steps your brain must go though in order to create a complete sentence that is grammatically correct, right?

1.	Find the infinitive form of the verb you want to use
2.	Drop the -AR
3.	Add the correct ending, according to the subject of the sentence:

	yo	-o		nosotros	-amos
	tú	-as		vosotros	-áis
	él			ellos
	ella	-a		ellas	-an
	usted			ustedes

The same CONJUGATION CHART holds true for our -ER and -IR verbs but with some different endings.    For -ER verbs:

	yo	-o		nosotros	-emos
	tú	-es		vosotros	-éis
	él			ellos
	ella	-e		ellas	-en
	usted			ustedes

For -IR verbs:

	yo	-o		nosotros	-imos
	tú	-es		vosotros	-ís
	él			ellos
	ella	-e		ellas	-en
	usted			ustedes

By CONJUGATING the INFINITIVE to its proper person -- 1st person, 2nd person, 3rd person -- we can now create a good sentence in the Spanish language.  We do exactly the same thing in our own language with our verbs.  For example: say I wanted to communicate to my friend that I buy my fruit at Meijer's.  I would find the INFINITIVE comprar, CONJUGATE the INFINITIVE comprar to its yo form, and say to him, "Yo compro la fruta en Meijer's."  In English, we find the INFINITIVE, "to buy," CONJUGATE it according to the person who's doing the action: "I," then I say to my friend, "I buy my fruit at Meijer's."  I don't say, "I buys my fruit at Meijer's" because it's grammatically incorrect and sound doggone stupid!

Now, you know that to every grammar rule there is an exception (or two, or three, or. . . .) to it.  The same thought can be applied to a special set of Spanish verbs: the "GUSTAR-like verbs."  For this group of verbs we have to twist our minds a bit; we won't be CONJUGATING them like we have been doing with all the other verbs we've been using up to now.  Instead of using all six CONJUGATIONS of the verbs in this special group, you will only be using the third-person singular and the third-person plural conjugations, that's the él, ella, usted and ellos, ellas, ustedes forms, respectively.  My ranting about "not doing word-for-word translating from English to Spanish or vice versa" plays a huge role in your understanding of this set of verbs!  Let's look at an example or two of this to see if it won't help us to use these verbs correctly.

Let's say we want to communicate "I like the book" in Spanish.  The uninitiated Spanish-speaker would find the INFINITIVE in Spanish which would communicate the idea of "like," and that verb is gustar.  Remember, we're trying to say "I like the book."  So, what is more natural than CONJUGATING the regular verb gustar into the yo form -- just like we do with hablar, trabajar, manejar, escuchar, etc. when we want to communicate actions that I do -- and getting gusto?  We would then end up with a sentence that looked like this: Yo gusto el libro.  WRONG! WRONG! oh, so WRONG!  When we use this set of verbs we have to "twist" our minds around the following sentence formula:

To continue using our gustar verb example, let's look at the two main things we need to understand: 1) although it translates into English as our verb "to like," in Spanish it means "to be pleasing to someone," and 2) we can only use the third-person singular or third-person plural forms.  So, using the gustar verb to express my "like" for the book, I have to follow the abovementioned formulae.  Because "book" is singular, I have to use the first formula: Me  +  gusta  +  el libro.  The correct translation to the kind of English you and I speak every day is "I like the book."  The literal translation is "The book is pleasing to me," but we generally don't talk in that kind of word order or meaning.  You might here someone from "high society" up in the Northeast talk like that, or someone who's trying "to put on airs," or someone educated at an Ivy Leagues school -- just kidding all you Harvard,Yale, Brown, etc. graduates!  Anyway, you can see why word-for-word translations should be anathema (look it up!) to the person who wants to do Spanish well.  All the verbs in this special set follow the same logic as gustar, that is, 1) the subject which controls the action of the verb is going to be found BEHIND the verb, 2) the verb can only be conjugated into either the é,l, ella, usted form or the ellos, ellas, ustedes form, depending upon 'singular subject' or 'plural subjects,' and 3) the person (or thing) affected by the action of the verb and the subject is shown as an indirect object pronoun.

Now, as we examine these INDIRECT OBJECT PRONOUNS, we can see that there is no ambiguity regarding "to whom" the actions of this category of verbs is being done -- WOW!...that was a mouthful!.  There is no doubt when we use me, te, nos, os, right?  But, what if we just walked into a room of people and said, "Les gustan los Corvettes."?  To whom does the les refer in this sentence?  Some plural group of people (or animals, vegetables, or minerals) goes with les, but it's totally ambiguous.  So, Spanish has a little mechanism to help us clarify "to whom" the le or les refers: we use the letter "a" together with a noun and place this phrase at the start or at the end of the sentence.  For instance: A mis padres les gustan Corvettes.  Now is there any doubt regarding "to whom" the les refers in our sentence?  Of course not.  So, when there's a modicum of doubt regarding the "to whom" or "to whoms" -- as the Yoopers might say! -- when we use le or les, we use the "a  +  noun (and any modifiers)" to give clarification.

Enough blather.  Let's look at the list . . . and, no, I don't expect you to memorize each and every one of them.  Here's a comprehensive list of the GUSTAR-like verbs in the Spanish language.  Take a sec and see if you can't make sentences out of a few of them, according to what you learned above.  At the bottom of the page I've thrown out a few practice sentences.  To take you learning to the next level, substitute some of the verbs in the list for those you'll see in the sentences and change the INDIRECT OBJECT PRONOUN to create totally new sentences.

GUSTAR	to be pleasing to someone *	IMPORTAR	to be important to someone
DISGUSTAR	to be displeasing to someone	FASCINAR	to be fascinating to someone
ENCANTAR	to be enchanting to someone *	MOLESTAR	to be bothersome to someone
SORPRENDER	to be surprising to someone	FALTAR	to be lacking to someone
AGRADAR	to please someone	DOLER	to be painful/achey to someone*
HACER FALTA	to need for a purpose, to be necessary to someone	ASOMBRAR	to be amazing to someone
QUEDAR	to be left over/to be remaining to someone	PREOCUPAR	to be worrisome to someone
ENOJAR	to be angered at someone/something	PARECER	to appear/seem to be to someone
INDIGNAR	to be make someone indignant	OFENDER	to be offensive to someone
CAER	to set well/badly with someone/something	TOCAR	to be someone's turn to do something
EXTRAñAR	to seem strange/wierd to someone	INTERESAR	to be of interest to someone
CONVENIR	to suit/be good for someone	PONER	to become crazy about something/someone*
DAR ASCO	to be loathsome to someone	URGIR	to be urgent to someone
SOBRAR	to have more than enough of something	ENFADAR	to make someone angry
FASTIDIAR	to be disappointing to someone	EMOCIONAR	to be moving to someone
ABURRIR	to be boring to someone	ASUSTAR	to be scary to someone
BASTAR	to be sufficient to someone	DIVERTIR	to be fun to someone
CANSAR	to become tired, to be wearisome to someone	>ENTUSIASMAR	to be exciting to someone
HACER GRACIA	to be charming/entertaining to someone	HORRORIZAR	to be horrifying/apalling to someone
IRRITAR	to be irritating to someone	PICAR	to be itchy to someone
REPUGNAR	to be repugnant/disgusting to someone	VOLVER	to drive someone crazy about something

A mí * las vacas (GUSTAR). A Steve * que los estudiantes no amen las vacas como él (SORPRENDER).

Joe dice que Emily es loca, a Emily * que Joe diga tales cosas [such things] (MOLESTAR).

Mi madre dice malas palabras todo el tiempo.  A mi padre * que mi madre tenga una boca tan sucia (DISGUSTAR).

No * que Steve nos dé malas notas porque él es muy estúpido (IMPORTAR).

* que los gatos vengan a verme cada vez que yo les llamo (ENCANTAR)

A nosotros * cuando Steve traiga comida a la clase para los estudiantes de español (FASCINAR).

Here's another worksheet on GUSTAR-like verbs

Here are some links where you'll find more on these kinds of verbs:

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