Beginning Spanish ¡Empecemos por aquí!

Module D: The student experience  • 75 For example, in the sentence “Me gusta la clase,” I am not doing anything. That is why gustar is not in the yo form. Instead, the class is pleasing to me . The conjugation of the verb gustar corresponds with la clase . This means that the form of gustar will not change no matter who likes the class. Me gusta la clase. Te gusta la clase. Le gusta la clase. Nos gusta la clase. Les gusta la clase. So what are the words preceding the verb gustar ? Those are indirect object pronouns, and their func- tion is to express to whom something happens. The sentence “Me gusta la clase” translates naturally as “I like the class.” Its literal translation, however, would be “The class is pleasing to me.” We will look more closely at indirect object pronouns in Lengua 2.7. The pronouns me , te , and nos are very clear about who they are referring to (to me, to you, and to us). The pronouns le and les often need clarification. To clarify who the indirect object pronoun is referring to, add a (to) before identifying them. Ejemplos A María le gusta ver películas de acción. A mi papá no le gustan las películas de ciencia ficción. A los estudiantes no les gusta tomar exámenes. If the person is identified in the sentence, the a cannot be omitted. It is there because the people in these sentences are objects of the verbal action; María , mi papá , and los estudiantes are not doing anything. However, once the context establishes who I am referring to, I can stop clarifying. For example, AMaría le gusta ver películas de acción. También le gustan las películas románticas. No le gustan las películas de terror. The first sentence includes a to make it clear who I am talking about. The next two sentences no longer need to clarify, so a is not repeated. There can also be expressions with a when using me , te , and nos , but these are less common because there is less ambiguity with those pronouns. In these cases, the expression with a is usually for adding emphasis. Ejemplos ¿Te gustan las películas de amor? A mí no me gustan. A nadie en mi familia le gusta ver las noticias. ¿A ti te gusta?