Welcome to our grammar lesson about other verbs like “gustar” in Spanish.
The verb “gustar”, which means “to be pleasing”, produces a particular grammar structure in Spanish.
We explain it in detail in our lesson about “gustar”. We invite you to read that lesson first to really understand this topic.
In the present lesson, we are simply going to review other Spanish verbs that produce the same sentence structure as “gustar”.
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.
- etc.
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”, 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 historia.
History 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
Quiz
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. Click on the gray spaces to see the solutions:
1) A mí me encanta leer. (encantar)
Reading pleases me a lot.
2) ¿A ti te importa la política? (importar)
Does politics matter to you?
3) A Carmen le duelen las piernas. (doler)
Carmen’s legs hurt.
4) A nosotros nos ofenden tus insultos. (ofender)
Your insults offend us.
5) A vosotros os alegra ganar. (alegrar)
Winning makes you guys happy.
6) A mis amigos les entusiasma el fútbol. (entusiasmar)
Football/soccer is thrilling to my friends.