Verbs like "gustar" (Verbos de Afección)

Verbs of affection (los verbos de afección), most famously represented by gustar (to like/please), work differently in Spanish than in English. Instead of saying "I like the book," Spanish syntax structures this as "The book pleases me" (me gusta el libro). The thing or activity that is liked acts as the grammatical subject of the sentence.

Because the liked thing is the subject, the verb is conjugated to agree with it, resulting in these verbs being used almost exclusively in the third-person singular (gusta) or third-person plural (gustan). The person experiencing the feeling is represented by an indirect object pronoun (me, te, le, nos, os, les). To emphasize or clarify the person, you can add a + pronoun/name at the beginning (e.g., a Juan le gustan los libros).

Learners commonly make mistakes by conjugating gustar to agree with the person (e.g., saying yo gusto los libros instead of me gustan los libros). Another error is omitting the indirect object pronoun (e.g., saying a María gusta el chocolate instead of a María le gusta el chocolate). Other common verbs in this category include encantar (to love), interesar (to interest), and doler (to hurt).