Gustar and similar verbs (encantar, interesar, doler)

Me gusta la pizza.I like pizza.

Gustar doesn't work like English "to like" — it works backwards. The thing being liked is the grammatical subject of the sentence, and the person who likes it shows up as an indirect object pronoun. Me gusta la pizza is closer to "pizza is pleasing to me" than to "I like pizza," even though it translates naturally as the second one.

Quick shortcut: [indirect object pronoun] + gusta/gustan + [the thing liked]. Gusta is singular, gustan is plural — and the agreement is with the thing liked, never with the person.

The pattern

Gustar always needs an indirect object pronoun (me, te, le, nos, os, les) before it, and the verb itself agrees with its grammatical subject — the thing liked, which usually comes after it (though Los libros me gustan is just as correct):

Me gusta el café. (I like coffee — el café is singular, so gusta.) Me gustan los libros. (I like books — los libros is plural, so gustan.) ¿Te gusta la música? (Do you like music?) Nos gustan las películas de terror. (We like horror movies.)

This is exactly the same pronoun set taught in Indirect object pronouns — gustar is simply one of the verbs that always uses them.

One or more infinitives: usually singular

When the thing liked is an activity rather than a thing, it's expressed with an infinitive — and gustar usually stays singular even with two or more infinitives joined by y, since they're felt as one combined activity:

Me gusta bailar. (I like dancing.) Me gusta leer y escribir. (I like reading and writing.)

Plural gustan is also possible with two infinitives if they're meant as separate, distinct activities rather than one combined thing (Me gustan leer y escribir, treating "reading" and "writing" as two different likes) — but singular is by far the more common choice, and always safe to default to.

Adding a mí, a ti… for clarity or emphasis

The pronoun me/te/le/nos/os/les is never optional — it has to be there even when the person is also named. A phrase like a mí, a ti, a Juan can be added alongside it, mainly to clarify an ambiguous le/les or to contrast two people:

A mí me gusta el café, pero a él le gusta el té. (I like coffee, but he likes tea.) A Marta le gusta viajar. (Marta likes to travel — le alone wouldn't say who "she" is.)

These a mí / a ti forms are the same ones covered in Prepositional pronouns. Notice a mí me gusta, not just a mí gusta — the a phrase adds emphasis, it doesn't replace the required pronoun.

Encantar, interesar, doler: same pattern

Several other common verbs follow gustar's pattern exactly — an indirect object pronoun, and agreement with the thing that causes the feeling, not with the person:

Me encanta esta canción. (I love this song.) Nos interesan los idiomas. (We're interested in languages.) Le duele la cabeza. (Their head hurts / They have a headache.) Me duelen los pies. (My feet hurt.)

Encantar is a stronger version of gustar ("to love/be delighted by" rather than just "to like"). Interesar means "to interest" (someone). Doler ("to hurt") uses the same backwards logic as the others — literally "the head hurts to them," not "they hurt their head."

Common mistakes

• To say "I like pizza," don't say ❌ Yo gusto la pizza → ✅ Me gusta la pizza. (gustar isn't used like a normal verb with the person as its subject to mean "to like" — the person needs the indirect object pronoun, and the thing liked is the subject.)
• ❌ Me gusta los libros. → ✅ Me gustan los libros. (the verb has to agree with the plural thing liked, los libros, not stay singular by default.)
• ❌ A mí gusta el café. → ✅ A mí me gusta el café. (adding a mí doesn't replace the required me — both appear together.)

Quick check

1. A Pedro ___ gusta el fútbol. — fill in the missing pronoun.
2. Me ___ las manzanas: gusta or gustan?
3. Say "I love this movie" using encantar.
4. Correct this: Me duele los pies.

Key takeaways

• Gustar works backwards from English: the thing liked is the subject, and the person is an indirect object pronoun (me, te, le, nos, os, les) that always has to be there.
• Gusta and gustan agree with the thing liked, not with the person — singular thing, singular verb; plural thing, plural verb.
• One or more infinitives as the thing liked usually take singular gusta, even when there are two joined by y.
• An optional a mí, a ti, a Juan… adds clarity or emphasis but never replaces the pronoun.
• Encantar, interesar and doler follow this exact same pattern.