Ch 2 · Lesson 13Spanish · Chapter 2 · Lesson 13 · Grammar primer
Gustar type verbs
Prescribed by the AQA specification.
The short version
agrees with the thing, not with you
.
Why?Hide
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 .
Why?Hide
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
.
Why?Hide
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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Lesson 13 of 16 in this chapter