Me gustaría hablar español

The Spanish Verb Gustar is used a lot in Spanish and the conditional tense is especially useful as it is often preferred to querer, which means ‘to want‘ when requesting something or expressing a wish.

However, before venturing further into an explanation, it is worth explaining that me gustaría means it would please me. Do not forget that gustar although used as the direct equivalent of ‘to like‘, in fact means ‘to please‘ or ‘to be pleasing‘.

The difficulty of this expression is that with it you have to get used to a different order of words from the English. Spanish, as is so often the case, is often subject to this varied word order, depending greatly on the importance of what is referred to.

So, as me is important, it is placed at the beginning of the sentence regardless of the fact it is the indirect object (i.e. it means to me) rather than the subject = I…

The problem of course is that you have to change the indirect object pronouns to suit who is being referred to; here are the indirect object pronouns.

• me - to me
• te - to you
• le - to him, her
• le -  to you (polite)
• nos - to us
• os - to you
• les - to them
• les - to you (polite plural)

The conditional form of gustar, which is gustaría, is the same whether it is used in the singular or in the plural and here is how it is formed.

• me gustaría – I would like
• te gustaría – you would like
• le gustaría – he, she would like
• le gustaría – you would like (polite)
• nos gustaría – we would like
• os gustaría – you would like
• les gustaría – they would like
• les gustaría – you would like (polite plural)

When to Use The Prepositional ‘a‘

When the pronoun le or les is used, it isn’t always clear who is the person that is doing the ‘liking‘. When this is the case, you should add the prepositional phrase a plus the person/s who is ‘liking‘. This is shown in the examples below. It should also be noted that even though the person is mentioned in the sentence the indirect-object pronoun should not be left out. The purpose of using the prepositional phrase is to make clear who the person is that is being referred to and not as a replacement for the indirect object pronoun.

• A Juan le gustaría el coche. – Juan would like the car.
• A Carlos le gustaría los zapatos. – Carlos would like the shoes.
• ¿A ustedes les gustaría el coche? – Would you (plural) like the car?

The use of the prepositional ‘a‘ is not just for use when using gustar in the conditional tense but for whenever there is a need to clarify the person who persons who is ‘liking‘.

For example:

• A Carlos le gusta el café – Carlos likes the coffee (The coffee pleases Carlos)
• A Carlos le gustan los zapatos – Carlos likes the shoes (The shoes please Carlos)

Follow the link for more information about the uses and the conjugation of ‘verbo gustar‘ in the present tense.

If you are struggling with conjugating and using the verb gustar or any other Spanish verb, then check out my Verbarrator Review. The verbarrator is the newest and most up-to-date Spanish verb training software on the market and is well worth considering as it will certainly speed up and enhance your studies.

El Verbo Gustar – Gustar Conjugation

El Verbo Gustar

El verbo gustar (The verb gustar), which literally means ‘to please’ but is translated and used instead as the equivalent to the English ‘to like’, is something of an anomaly to English speakers because it is used totally differently to how we use the English verb it stands for.

I wrote an article some time ago on how to use the verb Gustar and rather than rewite the same information I will post the article here:

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El Verbo Gustar – Using The Spanish Verb Gustar

In Spanish, there is no exact equivalent to the English verb ‘to like’, actually, the nearest in both meaning and, most importantly, in how it is used, is the verb gustar, ‘el verbo gustar‘, which literally translated into English is ‘to please’.

To emphasize this; if you were to say in English, ‘I like my coffee strong‘, the Spanish equivalent, would translate as ‘Strong coffee pleases me‘.

Using Gustar is quite simple when compared to other verbs in Spanish.

Although, not strictly an irregular Spanish verb, gustar does not follow any of the regularly used Spanish verb patterns, whether they are irregular or regular and it only ever uses the 3rd person forms, irrespective of the tense.

The make-up of a sentence when using the verb gustar is the opposite as it is in English. (To give a grammatical explanation; the English subject becomes the indirect object and the English object becomes the subject.}

Now…to put that explanation into plain English so that everyone can understand!

Consider this phrase: ‘I like my coffee strong‘, in this sentence ‘I‘ is the subject and ‘coffee‘ is the object, Compare that with this sentence, ‘Strong coffee pleases me‘, where ‘coffee‘ is the subject and ‘me‘ is the indirect object.

As I have said, gustar is always used in the third person and this happens because it relates to what is liked, instead of whom or what likes it.

If what is ‘liked‘ is singular or, if it’s an action that is ‘liked‘ gusta is used, if, however, what is ‘liked‘ is plural you would use gustan.

Gustar Conjugation of the present tense in the singular and plural

:

• Me gusta/gustan – I like…or, I like it
• Te gusta/gustan – You like…or, you like it
• Le gusta/gustan – He/She/You like…or, he/she/you like it
• Nos gusta/gustan - We like…or, we like it
• Os gusta/gustan – You like…or, you like it
• Les gusta/gustan – They/you like…or, they/you like it.

Here are some examples:

• Me gusta el deporte. – I like sport.
• Nos gusta el colegio. – We like school.
• A Carlos le gusta hablar. – Carlos likes talking

Gustar in the plural:

• Me gustan los coches. – I like cars
• Nos gustan los trenes. – We like trains
• Les gustan los perros – They like the dogs.

Gustar isn’t the only Spanish verb that is formed like this, encantar ‘to enchant/love’, apetecer ‘to fancy/crave for’, quedar ‘to stay/remain’, faltar ‘to be missing’, parecer ‘to seem’, and doler ‘to hurt/ache/mourn’ are a few of the commonly used verbs that are used in this way.

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I hope that this will help you understand the use of the Spanish verb gustar a little better. There is another very common way that gustar is used and that is in the conditional tense and you can read about it on my next post but before that you should check out the video below that looks at how gustar is used…it never fails to put a smile on my face!

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Fantastic video clip, hey!

If you are struggling with the use of gustar or the conjugation and use of any Spanish verbs and it is holding you back in your studies check out my review of the Verbarrator verb training software. It is the best learning aid I’ve ever used specifically aimed at mastering Spanish verbs and their complex conjugations.

The subjunctive can be confusing to many English speaking students of Spanish due to the fact it is rarely used in English. I am assuming that, because you are reading this post on the subjunctive in Spanish, that you are probably familiar with the most commonly used verb mood which is the indicative. The indicative is a verb mood that all of your initial verb studies would have been in and it is therefore considered the normal verb form as it indicates both action and state of being, there is also the distinct possiblility that you may also be aware of the formation and use of the imperative mood which is used when giving commands {if not, an explanation can be found on this blog}. The Subjunctive, however, is used to express a wish, a strong emotional attitude, or an uncertainty.

In general, the subjunctive is a verb mood that is used to express an action or state of being in the context of the speaker’s reaction to it. It is often the case, although not always, that the subjunctive mood is used in dependent clauses introduced by que (which, that, who). It is common to use a subjunctive verb in sentences that express doubt, uncertainty, denial, desire/wish, commands, reactions or a strong emotional attitude to the sentence containing the subjunctive verb.

Here are some examples comparing the Indicative and Subjunctive:

Indicative:

• Jose almuerza. (Jose is having lunch)

Subjunctive:

• Wish= Espero que Jose almuerce. (I hope that Jose is having lunch)
• Desire= Te ruego que almuerces (I beg you to have lunch)
• Doubt= Dudo que Jose almuerce (I doubt that Jose is having lunch).

• Indicative (statement of fact): Jose almuerza. (Jose is having lunch)
• Indicative (statement of fact): Sé que Jose almuerza. (I know that Jose is having lunch)

• Subjunctive (doubt): No es cierto que Jose almuerce. (It is uncertain that Jose is having lunch.)
• Subjunctive (denial): No es verdad que Jose almuerce. (It is not true that Jose is having lunch)
• Subjunctive (reaction): Estoy feliz que Jose almuerce. (I am happy that Jose is having lunchg)
• Subjunctive (wish): Espero que Jose almuerce (I hope that Jose is having lunch)
• Subjunctive (desire/wish): Prefiero que Jose almuerce (I prefer that Jose is having lunch).

When making formal commands the subjunctive is also used:

• ¡Tenga Ud eso! (Have this!)

This is also the case when making informal commands that are negative:

• ¡No almuerces! (Don´t have lunch!)

For commands that mean encouragement:

• ¡Almorcemos! (Let’s have lunch!).

And after impressional statements:

• Es necesario que/ insisto que Jose almuerce... (I insist that Jose has lunch).

For those of you who are strugging to come to terms with the subjunctive in Spanish or with learning Spanish verbs in general, may I suggest reading my review of the verbarrator. The verbarrator is a verb training software program which is, in my opinion, the best program currently available for mastering the complexities of Spanish conjugation… and if you decide to purchase it through one of the many links on my site you will also receive a copy of my conjugation book ‘2000+ Spanish Irregular Verbs‘ completely free!

For more interesting and informative reading check out my previous post about Ser Subjunctive conjugation

http://www.irregularspanishverbs.com/blog/xxx/spanish-subjunctive-ser-subjunctive-conjugation/

The Spanish Subjunctive is a strange concept to English speakers as it is very rarely used in the English language, in Spanish however it is used frequently. The subjunctive is a verb mood that is typically used to express a wish, emotion, opinion, judgement, possibility or something that has not yet happened and if you need further information regarding an explanation of how the subjunctive is used in Spanish there is a link at the end of this post that will help you.

This post, however, will provide the irregular conjugation of each of the tenses of the much used Spanish verb Ser in the subjunctive.

Subjunctive Present Tense (Subjuntivo presente)

• yo sea
• tú seas
• él/ella sea
• usted sea
• nosotros/as seamos
• vosotos/as seáis
• ellos/ellas sean
• ustedes sean

Subjunctive Imperfect Tense (Subjuntivo pretérito imperfecto)

• yo fuera/fuese
• tú fuera/fueses
• él/ella fuera/fuese
• usted fuera/fuese
• nosotros/as fuéramos/fuésemos
• vosotos/as fuerais/fuereis
• ellos/ellas fueran/fuesen
• ustedes fueran/fuesen

Just to add to any confusion you may be suffering from, it should be noted that there are two different set of endings for the imperfect tense in the subjunctive both mean the same and either can be used!

Subjunctive Future Tense (Subjuntivo futuro imperfecto)

• yo fuere
• tú fueres
• él/ella fuere
• usted fuere
• nosotros/as fuéremos
• vosotos/as fuereis
• ellos/ellas fueren
• ustedes fueren

Here are some links to other ‘ser‘ related posts:

• Present Tense Conjugation of Ser
• Imperfect Tense Conjugation of Ser
• Ser vs Estar
• Preterite Tense of Ser
• Spanish Subjunctive

…and if you need a full and complete Ser Conjugation chart one can be downloaded and printed from the Ser conjugation page on the main site.

However, if you are one of the many students of Spanish who need more help with learning Spanish verbs, I will suggest that you read my verbarrator review which is, in my opinion, the best verb training program currently available for the study of Spanish verb conjugation…I also offer a copy of my conjugation book ‘2000+ Spanish Irregular Verbs‘ completely free if you purchase verbarrator through one of many links throughout my site, which is a promotion you will not find anywhere else online!

Understanding all aspects of Ser conjugation is extremely important to anyone who is learning Spanish and arguably the most important of the ser conjugation patterns to master is that of the indicative present tense.

However, before you even learn the conjugation of the irregular Spanish verb ser it is a requirement to understand how it is used, or even if ser is the verb you should even be using! This is because, unlike as in English, Spanish has two verbs that that are used that mean ‘to be‘, and these are, as you probably know already…ser and estar.

The rules surrounding the use of ser and estar may seem complicated at first but do become much easier after continuous and regular use, thus making the ser vs estar question a distant memory very quickly for the majority of students. Unfortunately though, before this can happen, a period of study is required and in order to master this area of Spanish efficiently you will need concise and accurate information that relates to the differences between these two Spanish verbs and also the conjugation of the verb ser… all this information can be found here, on this blog, and on the main website of irregularspanishverbs.com and all the links you will need are listed below:

Present Tense Conjugation of Ser
Imperfect Tense Conjugation of Ser
Ser vs Estar
Preterite Tense of Ser
Ser Subjunctive Conjugation

…and you can visit this link for a full and complete Ser Conjugation chart that can be downloaded and printed.
For those of you who need more help with learning Spanish verbs, may I suggest reading my review of the verbarrator verb training software which is, in my opinion, the best program currently available for studying, and mastering, the complexities of Spanish verb conjugation…I also offer a copy of my conjugation book ‘2000+ Spanish Irregular Verbs‘ completely free when purchasing the verbarrator through my site, a promotion found nowhere else online!