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So, this makes no sense to me. At my current understanding, me encanta would mean I am loved by he/she/it; because me is the object of the verb encantar, and the verb is in the 3rd person tense.

According to the translation however, I am the subject. This causes two confusions:

1: Why is the verb seemingly in the 3rd person tense if I am the subject?

2: Why is the 1st person pronoun in its object form if I am the subject? If I am both the subject and the object, then the verb is reflexive; but then it's supposed to be written as encantarse and not encantar, no?

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    Think "it enchants me". Not a good translation, but it will help you understand the construct that is natural to the Spanish speaker.
    – Walter Mitty
    Commented Sep 11, 2023 at 16:01

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"Encantar" works like "gustar", "complacer", "interesar"...

See this previous answer: Is "me gustas" ever correct, e.g. to say "I like you"?

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  • This is what I suspected. Thanks. I would describe these verbs as confusing because they reverse what would have been the intuitive designations of subject and object. It is more intuitive to think of the person that likes someone as the subject of gustar, though perhaps I am just suffering from my own language's perspective here. Is there a word for these kinds of verbs, where the intuitive roles of subject and object are (at least from the perspective of some languages) flipped?
    – user110391
    Commented Sep 7, 2023 at 16:09
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    English works the same with verbs like "to please": It pleases me. I don't know whether there is a name for those "flipped" pairs.
    – aerobiomat
    Commented Sep 8, 2023 at 11:19
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    BTW, you can use "gustar" the same way as in English if you add "de": Él gusta de beber buen vino = He likes drinking good wine. While this is more common in writing than in speech, there is a very very common expression involving the verb "encantar": Encantado de conocerte.
    – aerobiomat
    Commented Sep 8, 2023 at 11:25
  • El gusta de beber?? Nunca he visto eso. Le gusta beber buen vino.
    – Lambie
    Commented Sep 8, 2023 at 17:51
  • Como dice el DPD, sobre todo en lenguaje escrito: spanish.stackexchange.com/questions/35059/…
    – aerobiomat
    Commented Sep 10, 2023 at 17:47

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