gustar

Borrowed from Latin gustāre, possibly a semi-learned term or early borrowing; cf. gust.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ɡusˈta]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ɡusˈtaɾ]
• Rhymes: -a(ɾ)

gustar (first-person singular present gusto, first-person singular preterite gustí, past participle gustat)

1. to taste

   Synonym: tastar

• gust

• gostar

From Old Galician-Portuguese gostar (“to taste”) (13th century, Cantigas de Santa Maria). Probably borrowed from Latin gustō, gustāre. Compare Portuguese gostar.

• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Hyphenation: gus‧tar

gustar (first-person singular present gusto, first-person singular preterite gustei, past participle gustado)

1. to be pleased, enjoy

   O viño tinto gústame mellor que o branco ― I like red wine more than white

   • 1791, anonymous author, O faraute mandón:

     Rapeteiro Cumilon
     traja congros é sentolas
     ¿Picadiñas con sebolas,
     moyto lle gosta ó lambon.

     Ravening filcher
     he swallows congers and king crabs
     minced with onions,
     the glutton likes them so much.

2. (intransitive) to taste
3. (intransitive) to like, enjoy [with de]

   Eu gusto do pan quente ― I enjoy freshly baked bread

• gusto

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “gostar”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “gostar”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “gostar”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “gustar”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “gustar”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

gustar (present tense gustas, past tense gustis, future tense gustos, imperative gustez, conditional gustus)

1. to taste

• gust

Either from gust +‎ -ar or from Latin augustālis, from augustus.

• IPA^(key): /ɡuˈstar/

gustar

1. (popular/folk usage) August (eighth month of the Gregorian calendar)

   Synonyms: (standard/most common) august; (popular/folk name, rare) agust; (popular/folk name) măsălar

Borrowed in this form from Latin gustāre. Replaced the inherited Old Spanish form gostar.^[1] See gusto. The use of this verb to mean "like" is a uniquely Ibero-Romance development. Compare Portuguese gostar.

• IPA^(key): /ɡusˈtaɾ/ [ɡusˈt̪aɾ]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Syllabification: gus‧tar

gustar (first-person singular present gusto, first-person singular preterite gusté, past participle gustado)

1. (transitive) to taste, to try (determine the flavour of something by putting it in one's mouth)

   Synonyms: probar, catar, degustar, saborear

2. (transitive) to experiment, to try

   Synonyms: experimentar, probar

3. (intransitive) to please, to be liked by (takes an indirect object)

   Me gusta esta manzana. ― I like this apple. (literally, “This apple is pleasing to me.”)

   Me gustas tú. ― I like you. (literally, “You are pleasing to me.”)

4. (intransitive, uncommon or formal) to like, to enjoy [with de]

   Synonym: disfrutar

   Mi padre y yo gustábamos de hacer excursiones juntos. ― My father and I liked to go on walks together.

5. (transitive) to want, to please

   Synonyms: querer, desear

   Puedes venir cuando gustes. ― You can come whenever you please.

• The English verb to like is usually translated to and from Spanish as gustar. This causes confusion for some English speakers studying Spanish, since (in most common speech) the subject and object of gustar are seemingly reversed from those of to like. That is, the subject of gustar is the thing that "pleases", and the (indirect) object is the one who "likes" that thing. (This usage is in fact more akin to the archaic definition of to like: Su semblante no me gusta ― His countenance likes me not.)

A commonly used method is to think of gustar as literally meaning to be pleasing to:

No me gustaron las espinacas. ― I didn't like the spinach. (literally, “The spinach was not pleasing to me.”)

¿Te gusto? ― Do you like me? (literally, “Am I pleasing to you?”)

Le gustas a María ― María likes you. (literally, “You are pleasing to María.”)

A los pájaros les gusta cantar. ― Birds like to sing. (literally, “Singing is pleasing to birds.”)

A la chica le gustan las flores. ― The girl likes flowers. (literally, “Flowers are pleasing to the girl.”)

Note that the indirect object pronoun (me/te/le) is usually compulsory before gustar, even if the object itself is also present in the sentence. The only exception is if the object is a universal pronoun such as todo (everyone) or nadie (no one), in which case the extra pronoun is often optional:

Yo creía que esta película no (le) gustaba a nadie, pero ahora sé que le gustó mucho a mi madre. ― I used to think that no one liked this film, but now I know that my mother liked it a lot.

Also, in its conditional form, gustar can be used to express wishes or polite requests, in the same way as would like in English:

Nos gustaría más dinero. ― We would like more money.

• However, the form gustar de does not "reverse" the subject and object, and functions similarly to its English counterpart. Hence, (A mí) me gusta Madrid and (Yo) gusto de Madrid are both acceptable translations of I like Madrid. The latter form, however, is considered somewhat formal, and is much less common in all dialects of Spanish, especially in speech.
• When used to mean to taste or to want, it functions like a typical transitive verb (i.e., the subject and object are not "reversed" and the preposition de is not used):

¿Gustas la cerveza? ― Do you taste the beer? / Do you want the beer?

(Contrast with ¿Te gusta la cerveza? and ¿Gustas de la cerveza?, both of which mean "Do you like beer?".)

For the meaning to want, gustar is rarely used except in courtesy expressions (elsewhere, verbs such as querer are used more commonly).

• (to like something): antojar, apetecer, encantar, molar (colloquial, Spain)
• (to like somebody, not romantically): agradar, parecer bien, caer bien (colloquial)
• (to like somebody romantically): estar enamorado de, encularse de (vulgar, El Salvador)
• (to like doing something): adorar, encantar, fascinar

• → Mecayapan Nahuatl: quigustarohua

• agradar
• deleitar
• detestar (“to detest”)
• encantar
• odiar (“to hate”)

• “gustar”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024