Gustar and the backwards verbs

English says "I like the music": I am the subject. Spanish turns it around: Me gusta la música, literally "the music is pleasing to me". The thing liked is the subject, and the person is an indirect object pronoun:

• me gusta (I like), te gusta (you like)

• le gusta (he, she, you formal like)

• nos gusta (we like), les gusta (they, you plural like)

Because the thing liked is the subject, the verb agrees with it, not with the person. One thing or an activity: gusta. Several things: gustan.

• Me gusta el café. Me gustan los gatos.

• Nos gusta cocinar. (an infinitive is always singular)

The classic English-speaker mistakes are yo gusto (which means "I am pleasing") and me gusta los gatos. Find the thing liked and count it.

To name the person, add a + name, and keep the pronoun too: A mi padre le gustan las películas. Spanish also keeps the definite article where English drops it: Me gusta el chocolate, not Me gusta chocolate.

For negatives, no goes before the pronoun: No nos gusta.

Doler (to hurt) works exactly like gustar. The part of the body is the subject, and the person who feels the pain is the indirect object:

• Me duele la cabeza. (My head hurts.)

• Me duelen los pies. (My feet hurt.)

• A mi abuela le duele la espalda. (My grandmother's back hurts.)

Doler is a stem-changing verb, so the o becomes ue: duele for one body part, duelen for two or more.

The big trap for English speakers is the possessive. English says "my head hurts"; Spanish says me duele la cabeza, with la, not mi. The pronoun me already tells you whose head it is, so mi cabeza me duele sounds clumsy. The same goes for te, le, nos and les: always the article with the body part.

Watch the agreement too: los oídos, los ojos and las piernas are plural, so the verb is duelen.

To ask, keep the same structure: ¿Te duele la garganta? (Does your throat hurt?). To say it hurts a lot, add mucho: Me duele mucho.

Encantar is the strong version of gustar and follows the same pattern: Me encanta el cine. Les encantan los perros. The thing loved is the subject, so the verb is encanta for one thing or an activity and encantan for several.

Use it for things and activities you love. For people, Spanish uses querer or amar: Quiero a mi hermana, not Me encanta mi hermana (that would sound like you find her charming).

Two English-speaker traps. First, encantar is already "a lot", so me encanta mucho is redundant; say me encanta or me gusta mucho. Second, the past: when you enjoyed one particular thing, use the preterite, and the verb still agrees with the thing: Me encantó la sopa. Me encantaron tus fotos.

To contrast people, add a + the stressed pronoun: A mi jefe le encantan las reuniones, pero a mí no. That a mí, a ti, a él is how Spanish says "but I don't" with these verbs; yo no is wrong here.

Me encanta is very common in everyday speech across all varieties.

Many verbs about feelings work like gustar: the cause is the subject, and the person affected is the indirect object.

• molestar: Me molesta el ruido. (The noise bothers me.)

• interesar: Le interesan los idiomas. (He is interested in languages.)

• aburrir, preocupar, importar follow the same pattern.

Molestar is easier than gustar for English speakers, because "it bothers me" already has the right shape. The trap is the agreement: when several things bother you, the verb is plural: Me molestan los mosquitos. When an action bothers you, use the infinitive and keep it singular: Nos molesta esperar.

Do not confuse molestar with "molest". It just means to bother or annoy, and it is perfectly polite: ¿Te molesta si abro la ventana? (Do you mind if I open the window?)

With a person named, add a + person and keep the pronoun: A mi esposo le molesta esperar. In Spain people also say hacer cola for "wait in line"; Latin America prefers hacer fila.

Faltar means to be missing or lacking, and it works like gustar: what is missing is the subject, and whoever is short of it is the indirect object.

• Me falta tiempo. (I'm short of time.)

• Nos faltan dos sillas. (We're two chairs short.)

• A la sopa le falta sal. (The soup needs salt.)

English builds this the other way round: "I'm missing two chairs", "the soup is missing salt". The trap is to make the person or the soup the subject. In Spanish, the chairs and the salt are doing the "missing", so the verb agrees with them: falta for one thing, faltan for several.

Without a person, it simply means something is absent: Faltan dos jugadores. (Two players are missing.) In the past, use the preterite for one occasion: Ayer faltaron tres alumnos.

Do not use faltar for missing a person emotionally: "I miss you" is te extraño in most of Latin America and te echo de menos in Spain. And for missing a bus, use perder: Perdí el autobús.

Quedar has two everyday gustar-type uses, and both turn the English sentence around.

What remains: the thing left over is the subject, and the person who still has it is the indirect object.

• Me quedan veinte pesos. (I have twenty pesos left.)

• Nos queda poca leche. (We have little milk left.)

• No me quedó dinero. (I had no money left.)

How clothes fit: the clothes are the subject, and the wearer is the indirect object.

• Esa camisa te queda bien. (That shirt fits you well.)

• Los pantalones me quedan grandes. (The trousers are too big on me.)

The English-speaker trap is translating "I have ... left" with tener. Tengo veinte pesos loses the "left"; me quedan veinte pesos is what a native says. And as always, count the subject: queda for one thing or an amount, quedan for several.

Without a pronoun, quedar means something else: to arrange to meet (Quedamos a las ocho, common in Spain) or to be located (¿Dónde queda el banco?, common in Latin America). Quedarse means to stay. Watch for the indirect pronoun to know which one you have.