How to say "something bores/annoys/saddens you" in Spanish

To express a negative feeling about something or doing something, e.g. it annoys you, it bores you, it saddens you... we often use verbs that work the same way as the verbs "gustar" and "encantar". To revise how gustar/encantar work see links at the end.

Let's see how these negative verbs work:

Molestar (to bother)

The verb molestar is used when we want to say that someone/something/doing something bothers us. Here are some examples:

Notice how the person who is bothered is expressed with the pronoun at the beginning of each sentence; in all cases above it is "me". This is NOT the subject of the sentence; the subject of the sentence is WHAT/WHO is doing the bothering. If it is a single person/thing that is doing the bothering then you need the verb in the 3rd person singular: "molesta". Doing something is considered to be a singular thing. But if what is bothersome is plural, e.g. "las moscas", then you need the verb in the 3rd person plural: "molestan".

Here are the indirect object pronouns to use depending on who is feeling bothered:

Aburrir (to bore)

We use the verb aburrir in Spanish to express that someone/something/doing something bores you. Have a look at these examples:

Notice again how the verb is conjugated in the 3rd person singular (aburre) when the subjects are singular (el campo, jugar a las cartas) but it is conjugated in the 3rd person plural (aburren) when the subject is plural (las conferencias, tus padres). Who is bored is expressed by the different indirect object pronouns (te, le, nos). Be careful not to use the personal subject pronouns; this would be incorrect:

Fastidiar (to annoy/bother)

Fastidiar is another verb used to express someone is annoyed/bothered by someone/something/doing something.

Here are some examples with fastidiar:

Entristecer (to sadden)

Entristecer is used to express that something/doing something/someone saddens you. It derives from the adjective "triste" (sad). Here are some examples:

As you can see all the examples above follow the same order. This is the most common way to express it. It can also be turned around, though this is less common. 

The most common order:

Less common but also correct:

Other inverted verbs used to express negative feelings are for example:

• Dar pena (to sadden)
• Enloquecer (to drive mad)
• Volver loco (to drive mad)
• Disgustar (to dislike)
• Repugnar (to find disgusting)

See also:

• Inverted verbs like "gustar" in Spanish

• Using gustar in Spanish + verb to say like [doing something] 

  Using gustar in Spanish to say you like something 

  How to say "to love something/doing something" in Spanish