gustar — 'to be pleasing', not 'to like'
Me gusta el café is, word for word, 'coffee pleases me'. The coffee is the subject and you are the one it happens to. English starts from the person; Spanish starts from the thing. For example: “Me gusta la ciudad” — I like this city. A rule from the Spanish course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
Me gusta el café is, word for word, 'coffee pleases me'. The coffee is the subject and you are the one it happens to. English starts from the person; Spanish starts from the thing.
So the verb follows what pleases, not who likes it. One thing: me gusta el café. Several: me gustan los libros.
The same machinery drives me duele (it hurts me) and me interesa (it interests me). Say yo gusto and you have said 'people like me'.
By example
- Me gusta la ciudadI like this city
- Me gustan las naranjasI like oranges
- ¿Te gusta el té?Do you like tea?
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
gustar — 'to be pleasing', not 'to like': how does it work in Spanish?
Me gusta el café is, word for word, 'coffee pleases me'. The coffee is the subject and you are the one it happens to. English starts from the person; Spanish starts from the thing.
What does it look like in an example sentence Spanish?
“Me gusta la ciudad” — I like this city. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.