>The primary reason gustar is so important to your teachers (and the reason we deliberately make it almost impossible to move beyond Spanish 312K without mastering it) is that in order to use this verb correctly, you have to recognize and understand one of the most basic differences between Spanish and English-- the role of word order in the language.

English has a fixed word order. It’s referred to as an SVO language, meaning the set order of a sentence is almost always "subject, verb, object." The order of the words tells us which noun in a sentence is the subject and which is the object.

For example, in the sentence "John annoys Mary," we know that John is the aggressor, the one doing the annoying, because he's first in the sentence. If you switch the nouns around, you change the basic facts of what happened. ("Mary annoys John" gives us an entirely different understanding of the situation. "John Mary annoys" just plain doesn't make any sense, because in English the verb has to come in the middle.)

Spanish, on the other hand, has a flexible word order. Instead of telling us who did what, word order in Spanish tells us which piece of information in the sentence is the newest or most important. In Spanish, whether we say "Juan le molesta a María" or "A María le molesta Juan," or even "A María Juan le molesta," Juan is still the jerk and María is the victim. Their grammatical roles don't change.

What does change is the implied question that we're responding to.
 
 
 

a) Juan le molesta a María	1) What does Juan do to María?
b) A María Juan le molesta	2) Who annoys María?
c) A María le molesta Juan	3) Whom does Juan annoy?

 

Can you match the question to the answer?
 
 

In English, since we can't move the words around, the only way to make this distinction is by vocal stress (which word we make louder or longer.)
 
 
 

a) John bothers MARIA	1) A María le molesta Juan
b) John BOTHERS María	2) A María Juan le molesta
c) JOHN bothers María	3) Juan le molesta a María

 

Can you match the English pronunciation to the best Spanish translation?
 
 

However, since in Spanish the word order doesn't tell us anything about subject and object, there has to be another way to tell who's doing and who's "done to." That's the role of the "A personal." What the "a personal" tells us is, "this person is not the subject." That's all, but that's extremely important. The words "*Juan molesta María" mean absolutely nothing in Spanish. It's impossible to tell who is doing the action and who is receiving it. If you have the person (or a word representing the person) in the sentence, you must have the "a" to distinguish who is NOT the subject.

Part 2-- Gustar is NOT "to like"

If you can make yourself think of the verb "gustar" as meaning "to cause pleasure," you'll have a lot easier time of learning Spanish. It will help you make the verb agree with the subject (the thing or person causing the pleasure) instead of the object (the person receiving the pleasure), and that in turn will help you figure out where to put the "a personal" and which indirect object pronoun (le, les, me, te, nos) to use.

It will also help you realize (if you've ever wondered) why gustar and verbs like it have an indirect object but no obvious direct object. This small class of verbs has a "built-in" direct object.

(A mi jefe le gustan los gatos = A mi jefe los gatos le causan placer.) Can you identify subject, direct object, and indirect object in the italicized sentence?

Part 3-- A two-ingredient recipe with an optional garnish

A sentence with a gustar-type verb will always have two basic parts-- the subject, and the verb phrase (verb and indirect object pronoun). It may also, for clarification or emphasis, have an explicit object (with an "A personal.")

The subject is the thing or person giving the pleasure.
 

Los gatos

 

The verb phrase tells us who gets or got the pleasure (the indirect object pronoun) and when (the tense of the verb)
 

le gustan

If we need to, we can also repeat who gets the pleasure, always including the "A Personal" so we don't get this confused with the subject.
 

a mi jefe

 

These three ingredients can go in any order!

Example:
 

A mi jefe

le gustan

los gatos

 
 

Los gatos

a mi jefe

le gustan

Le gustan

a mi jefe

los gatos

Los gatos

le gustan

a mi jefe

 

Other information has to find a proper spot between them. "No" will come right before the verb phrase. Intensifiers (mucho, más, etc) come after the verb phrase. They sound best immediately after, but are sometimes put farther back in the sentence for emphasis.