Welcome to our grammar lesson about other verbs like “gustar” in Spanish.
The verb “gustar” means “to be pleasing”.
What’s interesting about this verb, is that it produces a particular sentence structure. The Spanish learner should study that structure, already explained in our lesson about “gustar”.
Review our lesson about “gustar”!
In the present lesson, we are simply going to review other Spanish verbs that produce the same sentence structure as “gustar”, providing example sentences.
At the end you’ll find a Quiz and an Exercise for practice.
Identifying verbs like “gustar”
First of all, we need to understand that “gustar” doesn’t actually mean “to like”, but “to be pleasing”.
Example:
A mí me gusta el zumo de naranja.
Orange juice is pleasing to me.
“gustar” expresses a certain effect that something has on someone (“it is pleasing”).
Of course, we can think of other verbs that express different effects things have on people.
For example:
- Something worries me.
- Something scares me.
- Something bothers me.
- Something makes me happy.
- … (and many others)
In Spanish, all those verbs produce the same sentences structure as “gustar”.
List of verbs like “gustar”
Here is a list of common verbs like “gustar”. Notice that they all express the effect something has on someone:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| fascinar | to fascinate |
| encantar | to be very pleasing |
| entusiasmar | to delight, to thrill |
| interesar | to interest |
| apetecer | to feel like, to fancy |
| inspirar | to inspire |
| preocupar | to cause worry |
| dar miedo | to scare, to frighten |
| asustar | to scare, to frighten |
| aburrir | to bore |
| dar asco | to be repulsive |
| importar | to matter |
| sorprender | to surprise |
| impresionar | to impress |
| parecer | to seem |
| doler | to hurt, to be painful |
| picar | to itch |
| alegrar | to make happy |
| entristecer | to sadden |
| poner nervioso | to make nervous |
| ofender | to offend |
| costar | to be difficult |
| faltar | to be lacking/missing |
| hacer falta | to be necessary |
| molestar | to bother |
| fastidiar | to annoy |
Example sentences
We will now read sentences including some of the verbs above:
fascinar (to fascinate):
A mí me fascina su personalidad.
His personality fascinates me.
As we explained in our lesson about “gustar”, in this sentence we can remove “A mí” if we want to:
Me fascina su personalidad.
Or we can also change the order:
Su personalidad me fascina.
preocupar (to worry):
A mí me preocupa esta situación.
This situation worries me.
interesar (to interest):
A mi padre le interesa la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
World War II interests my father.
dar miedo (to scare, to frighten):
A ella le dan miedo las arañas.
Spiders scare her.
aburrir (to bore):
A nosotros nos aburren estas películas.
These movies bore us.
Practice
Take this short Quiz to test your knowledge about verbs like “gustar”:
Exercise
Let’s practice with some sentences!
Fill the gaps with the 2 words that are missing in each sentence. You need to use the verb in brackets:
1. A mí __ ___ leer novelas. (encantar)
Reading novels pleases me a lot.
2. ¿A ti __ ___ la política? (importar)
Does politics matter to you?
3. A Carmen __ ___ las piernas. (doler)
Carmen’s legs hurt.
4. A nosotros __ ___ tus insultos. (ofender)
Your insults offend us.
5. A vosotros __ ___ vernos. (alegrar)
Seeing us makes you guys happy.
6. A mis amigos __ ___ el fútbol. (entusiasmar)
Football/soccer is thrilling to my friends.
Solutions:
1) me encanta
2) te importa
3) le duelen
4) nos ofenden
5) os alegra
6) les entusiasma