We have been taught that 'gustar' is an unusual verb and that you only ever use 'gusta' or 'gustan' depending on whether you like singular or plural things.
Would you use 'me gustas' to say 'I like you'?
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Note that in at least some dialects of Spanish as it is spoken (as opposed to Spanish as the academies say it should be spoken) gustar is used as like - e.g. ¿Gustas el café?.– Peter TaylorJan 6, 2012 at 12:38
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1@César: Actually you could use me gustas with anything you address. So yes usually a person but also could involve personification of say a pet or robot but perhaps even inanimate objects on objects on occasion, in which case it would be just as quirky as in English telling your car or computer that you like it.– hippietrailJan 8, 2012 at 9:55
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6@David: Look no further than the famous Manu Chao song, Me Gustas Tú!– hippietrailJan 8, 2012 at 10:00
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1gustar is not unusual at all. It's almost equivalent to the verb like. And me gustas is correct and very common, I've actually told me gustas to many girls ;-)– PetruzaJan 10, 2012 at 1:58
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1I have been taught for years that "me gustas" means "You like me" and been told this is a regional use of the form and definition. Huge debate in my class.– MsWendiJan 23, 2020 at 22:45
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6 Answers
Yes, me gustas is correct way to say this.
Gustar is "unusual" in the way that it doesn't mean "to like", but rather "to be liked by". "to please"
It's absolutely not true that you only ever use gusta or gustan.
Consider few examples for each grammatical person:
Ya no te gusto — You don't like me anymore
Me gustas — I like you
Me gusta España — I like Spain
Sé que os gustamos — I know that you like us
No me gustáis — I don't like you (plural)
No me gustan los toros — I don't like bullfighting
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I should probably have said "normally only use". Thanks for your quick response. Jan 6, 2012 at 11:28
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5I would say gustar is only unusual when compared to English to like. Taken on its own it's perfectly usual. After all English to please works the same way and we wouldn't say it is unusual. Jan 8, 2012 at 9:57
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It's also unusual in that the subject nearly always comes after the verb and not before. This is still grammatical Spanish, but [S]VO is a more common order. Nov 13, 2015 at 22:09
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A remark regarding usage. I'm not very sure what you mean exactly by I like you in English (from a person to another). But in Spanish, if you say me gustas, this is in a more-than-friends sense. In a just-as-friends context, it's better to use me caes bien or me agradas. I think me gustas is more like I have a little crush on you. Be careful with that.
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4In Mexico, at least, it's actually stronger than a little crush. It is quite possible for this to be taken as an out and out come-on. Apr 27, 2018 at 1:50
As @vartec said, me gustas is correct. A great way to think about gustar in English is to imagine a word gust that means the opposite of disgust. Just like you would say that person disgusts me, with this imaginary word gust, you would say that person gusts me, meaning he or she pleases you, the opposite of disgust.
Or, for the case is question, you gust me, which would then translate back to me gustas.
Read more at thelearninglight.com.
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The other answers have focused on using gustar in the structure that it's normally taught in Spanish classes where *gustar takes an indirect object pronoun. While the most common use is absolutely either gusta or gustan (see this Google N-Gram, I omitted valid forms that weren't found so I could fit it all in a single search), the other forms, as you can see, are certainly used.
There is also another way to use gustar that mirrors the English construction a bit more closely (and is identical to modern Portuguese), although it will come off very formal in modern Spanish. See the comparison:
- I like pizza a lot.
Me gusta mucho la pizza. (standard)
Gusto mucho de la pizza. (alternate) - We like to read.
Nos gusta leer.
Gustamos de leer. - You're into me.
Te gusto.
Gustas de mí.
To use this structure, you use gustar with the same subject you would in the English statement, and follow it with the preposition de. The thing that is liked is the object of that preposition.
Finally, gustar can be used to mean like/wish/want/prefer and in this case it is actually a transitive verb, as in ¿Gusta Vd. un vino tinto? (would you like a red wine?) or Haz como gustes (do as you will/wish). This usage is very rare outside of, well, basically the two phrases (with minimal variation for subject/object) I gave ;-)
answered Apr 23, 2015 at 2:10
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As an addition to user0721090601's answer, stating that the normal use of "gustar" as a transitive verb has the subject as the cause of pleasure or attraction, I give you here - from the Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas (2010) - that
Esta es la construcción normal en el habla corriente.
The alternate construction may be found mostly in writing, as I highlight below, and in this case, "de" should not be omitted:
gustar. 1. Cuando significa ‘causar, o sentir, placer o atracción’ es intransitivo y puede construirse de dos formas:
a) El sujeto es la causa del placer o la atracción, y la persona que lo siente se expresa mediante un complemento indirecto: «Vos me gustás mucho» (Rovner Pareja [Arg. 1976]); «Le gustaban la buena música y los buenos libros» (Palou Carne [Esp. 1975]). Esta es la construcción normal en el habla corriente.
b) La persona que siente el placer es el sujeto y aquello que lo causa se expresa mediante un complemento introducido por de: «Gustaba de reunirse con amigos en su casa» (UPietri Oficio [Ven. 1976]). Es construcción documentada sobre todo en la lengua escrita. Debe evitarse la omisión de la preposición de, frecuente cuando el complemento regido es un infinitivo: «Barcelona y Tenerife, dos conjuntos que gustan jugar al ataque» (Vanguardia [Esp.] 22.3.94).
2. Como transitivo significa ‘querer o desear’ y su empleo es escaso fuera de fórmulas de cortesía: «¿Gusta usted una cerveza?» (Victoria Casta [Méx. 1995]); «—¿Le molesto si escucho las noticias? —Haga como guste» (Plaza Cerrazón [Ur. 1980]).
No, it is not correct. At least not grammatically correct. While it may be accepted in casual conversation, gustar is conjugated with either a singular or a plural ending. The person is not doing the action, rather represents a single noun that has an effect on a person. ie. Juan a mí me gusta. or Tû a mí me gusta. In this case, the subject pronoun 'you' is not doing the action, therefore the second person tense is not employed. Rather, another item, a singular noun, which happens to be a person, is having an effect on a person. It's comparable to saying that person makes me .... If you require more explanation, look in 501 verbs. It's a great resource. Thanks. Buena suerte.
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2"Me gustas" is perfectly valid. You could say "A mi me gusta Juan" (native speakers would favor that structure over "Juan a mí me gusta"). If you were talking to Juan then you could tell him "Me gustas, Juan". "Tû a mí me gusta" is incorrect. Conjugation should be "gustas".– DiegoApr 23, 2015 at 0:46
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In addition to what @Diego said, there are some terminology issues here. There are no conjugations that aren't singular or plural, so to imply a verb can "only" be conjugated in singular/plural says only that it's not a defective verb. Subject pronouns don't do actions, just the subjects. There is no "second person tense", tenses indicate temporality, being second person (of which there are 4-5 conjugations for gustar in each tense). Apr 23, 2015 at 1:25
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Also, when I say "algo me gusta", that thing is doing the action — it just happens the most adequate translation into English switches the roles. Both languages have ways of structuring utterances such that the liked thing is subject or object: I like something, something pleases me, me gusta algo, prefiero algo (or even gusto de algo) Apr 23, 2015 at 1:26
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@user0721090601 This is late, I know, but books.google.cl/… suggests that English was once the other way- something liking you meant that it pleased you.– ConradoApr 22, 2020 at 3:10