Good morning, please could you tell me how to say the following sentences which express personal attraction using the verb gustar:
The men liked her.
She liked the men.
Juan and Pedro liked Anna .
Anna liked Juan and Pedro.
Juan and Pedro liked Maria.
Also, please clarify if the personal “a” has to be written when referring to a name eg. Anna, Juan.
Hola E. L.
Good question! When we use gustar to talk about personal attraction, the structure in Spanish is different from English.
In Spanish, the person who feels attraction is expressed with an indirect object pronoun (me, te, le, nos, les), and the person who causes that attraction is the subject of the sentence.
So your examples would be:
The men liked her.
→ A los hombres les gustó ella. (or more naturally: A los hombres les gustó María.)
She liked the men.
→ A ella le gustaron los hombres.
Juan and Pedro liked Anna.
→ A Juan y Pedro les gustó Anna.
Anna liked Juan and Pedro.
→ A Anna le gustaron Juan y Pedro.
Juan and Pedro liked María.
→ A Juan y Pedro les gustó María.
Notice that gustar agrees with the person or people being liked, not with the person who feels the attraction. That’s why we use gustó (singular) with one person and gustaron (plural) with two or more people.
As for your last question: yes, the personal “a” is required when referring to people by name or as a group (a Anna, a Juan, a los hombres), even when using gustar.
I hope this helps clarify how gustar works in these situations 😊
Saludos
Silvia
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