5.2 Expressing Likes & Preferences: Gustar, Encantar, Interesar & Parecer

5.2 Expressing Likes & Preferences: Gustar, Encantar, Interesar & Parecer

Expressing personal likes, dislikes, preferences, and opinions is one of the most heavily assessed communicative functions at the DELE A1 level. Whether talking about your free time in Oral Tarea 2, answering the interviewer's questions in Oral Tarea 3, reading short personal emails in Prueba 1, or writing a postcard about your holiday in Prueba 3, you will use verbs of preference constantly.

However, for English speakers, the verb gustar and its related verbs (encantar, interesar, parecer) present a major syntactic hurdle. In Spanish, these verbs operate in an inverted syntactic structure compared to English.

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The Inverted Syntax of Gustar

In English, sentence structure follows the pattern: Subject (I) + Verb (like) + Direct Object (books). The person feeling the emotion performs the action of liking.

In Spanish, the mechanics are reversed: the thing that is liked acts as the grammatical subject, and it causes the feeling of pleasure in the person. The person experiencing the pleasure is an indirect object:

English Syntactic Structure:
  [ I ]           ──► like        ──► [ the book ]
  Subject             Verb            Direct Object

Spanish Syntactic Structure:
  [ Me ]          ──► gusta       ──► [ el libro ]
  Indirect Object     Verb            Grammatical Subject
  (To me)             (is pleasing)   (the book)

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The Indirect Object Pronoun Paradigm

Because the person liking is the indirect object, you must precede the verb with an indirect object pronoun that identifies who experiences the preference:

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Singular vs. Plural Agreement: Gusta vs. Gustan

Because the grammatical subject is the thing or activity being liked, the verb conjugates to match that subject. At the A1 level, you only need to choose between two forms: gusta (third-person singular) and gustan (third-person plural).

Decision Tree for Gustar
  Is the thing liked a SINGULAR NOUN?      ──►  Use GUSTA  (Me gusta el libro)
  Is the thing liked an INFINITIVE VERB?   ──►  Use GUSTA  (Me gusta bailar)
  Are there MULTIPLE INFINITIVE VERBS?     ──►  Use GUSTA  (Me gusta bailar y cantar)
  Is the thing liked a PLURAL NOUN?        ──►  Use GUSTAN (Me gustan los libros)

1. When to Use Gusta (Singular)

Use gusta in two primary linguistic environments:

• Before a Singular Noun: The noun carries a singular definite article (el or la):
  • Me gusta la comida mexicana. (I like Mexican food.)
  • ¿Te gusta este restaurante? (Do you like this restaurant?)
  • A María le gusta el vino blanco. (Maria likes white wine.)
• Before an Infinitive Verb: When expressing an activity you like doing:
  • Me gusta cocinar los domingos. (I like cooking on Sundays.)
  • Nos gusta aprender español. (We like learning Spanish.)
• Before Multiple Infinitives: Even if you list two, three, or more activities, the verb remains singular:
  • Me gusta viajar, leer y descansar. (NOT Me gustan viajar, leer y descansar).

2. When to Use Gustan (Plural)

Use gustan when the grammatical subject is a plural noun:

• Me gustan las manzanas rojas. (I like red apples.)
• ¿Te gustan las ciudades grandes? (Do you like big cities?)
• A ellos les gustan los deportes de invierno. (They like winter sports.)

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Clarifying & Emphatic Prepositional Phrases (a mí, a ti, a él...)

You will frequently observe sentences beginning with a prepositional phrase introduced by a (A mí me gusta..., A Juan le gusta...). These prepositional phrases fulfill two critical functions:

1. Disambiguation (Clarifying the 3rd Person)

The third-person pronouns le and les are ambiguous. Le gusta can mean he likes, she likes, or you (formal, usted) like. Adding the prepositional phrase removes all ambiguity:

• A él le gusta el fútbol. (He likes soccer.)
• A ella le gusta el tenis. (She likes tennis.)
• A usted le gusta el café sin azúcar. (You [formal] like coffee without sugar.)
• A mis hermanos les gusta la playa. (My brothers like the beach.)

2. Contrast and Personal Emphasis

With the first and second persons (me, te, nos, os), the pronoun already identifies the speaker clearly. Starting with a mí or a ti serves to emphasize personal contrast:

• A mí me gusta la montaña, pero a mi novio le gusta el mar. (As for me, I like the mountains, but my boyfriend likes the sea.)

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Related Preference Verbs: Encantar, Interesar & Parecer

Several other high-frequency Spanish verbs follow the exact same grammatical architecture as gustar. Mastering this mechanism gives you immediate access to all of them:

1. Encantar (To love / to adore something)

Encantar expresses a very strong preference (equivalent to English "to love"). Like gustar, it takes encanta (singular noun or infinitive) and encantan (plural noun):

• Me encanta la música flamenca. (I love flamenco music.)
• Me encanta viajar en tren. (I love traveling by train.)
• Nos encantan tus fotografías. (We love your photographs.)

2. Interesar (To be interested in something)

• A los turistas les interesa la historia de Toledo. (The tourists are interested in the history of Toledo.)
• ¿Te interesan las clases de baile? (Are you interested in dance classes?)

3. Parecer (To seem / to express opinions)

Parecer is widely used at A1 to give opinions about proposals, items, or situations:

• ¿Qué te parece este restaurante? (What do you think of this restaurant? / How does it seem to you?)
• Me parece una idea excelente. (It seems like an excellent idea to me.)
• Estos precios me parecen muy caros. (These prices seem very expensive to me.)

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Degrees of Preference: Hierarchy & Word Order

When describing your tastes in DELE speaking and writing tasks, use this standard scale of intensity:

Scale of Preference Intensity
  [++++]  Me encanta / Me encantan               (I love / I adore)
  [+++]   Me gusta mucho / Me gustan mucho       (I like a lot)
  [++]    Me gusta bastante / Me gustan bastante (I quite like / I like fairly well)
  [+]     Me gusta / Me gustan                   (I like)
  [-]     No me gusta / No me gustan             (I do not like)
  [---]   No me gusta nada / No me gustan nada   (I do not like at all)

Syntactic Position of Modifiers: Notice that adverbs like mucho (a lot) and nada (at all) always follow the verb:

• Me gusta mucho la fruta. (NOT Mucho me gusta la fruta.)
• No me gusta nada el frío. (NOT No nada me gusta el frío.)

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Interactive Agreement & Disagreement in DELE Tasks

In Oral Tarea 3 (conversation with the interviewer) and in listening dialogues in listening and reading, you must react naturally to another person's expressed preferences. Spanish requires distinct grammatical responses depending on whether the original statement was affirmative or negative.

Common Interactive Traps at DELE A1

1. The Yo también Trap: If someone says "Vivo en Madrid", you respond "Yo también" (because vivir uses normal subject pronouns). But if someone says "Me gusta Madrid", you must respond "A mí también", because gustar requires prepositional indirect object forms.
2. The También with Negatives Trap: If someone expresses a negative (No me gusta madrugar), never say A mí también no. Spanish possesses the dedicated negative agreement adverb tampoco: A mí tampoco.