Ch 2 · Lesson 13

Gustar type verbs

Prescribed by the AQA specification.

The short version

agrees with the thing, not with you

.

I like the books.
Why?

You are not the subject of ; the coffee is, and it is pleasing to you. So the verb agrees with what is liked: but . Changing I like to we like changes the pronoun, not the ending. , , and all work the same way round.

A adds emphasis, a María says who

María .

María likes dancing.
Why?

The a phrase in a repeats who is pleased, so it adds emphasis or contrast: a , a no. With and it also says who you mean, because can be him, her or formal you. The pronoun stays even then: a María , never a María .

works like : the body part is the subject

.

My feet hurt.
Why?

is literally 'the head hurts me': the part that hurts is the subject, so the verb agrees with it. One part takes , two or more take . Spanish says , not , because me already says whose it is. , and work the same way.

That's the gist. The full article goes deeper - more examples, the edge cases, the why - and the practice below scores like a vocabulary session and earns the same XP.

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Practice

Practise this lesson

10-question session

One question at a time, mixed across the exercises in this lesson. Miss one and it comes back round before the end. There are 24 in all: practise more afterwards if you want them.

Lesson 13 of 16 in this chapter

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