At the November 20 study session, we encountered the several verbs that require the use of the Indirect Object Pronouns once more.
We covered this on October 26. Since this idiomatic construction does not exist in English, it understandably comes up in the sessions frequently, so while risking redundancy, I include this brief review:
At the October 26 session, we discussed the translation of the English word "to like", or "to be pleasing:"
Gustarle
Gustarle is in a group of Spanish verbs called "Indirect Object Pronoun Verbs," and are also referred to as intransitive verbs.
These verbs must be conjugated with an indirect object pronoun. This grammatical construction does not exist in English; it is an idiom (modismo).
The following table shows conjugations for reflexive verbs, which use the indirect object pronoun in the singular and plural:
GUSTAR - to like
| SINGULAR | PLURAL |
| me gusta el libro te gusta el libro le gusta el libro nos gusta el libro les gusta el libro | me gustan los libros te gustan los libros le gustan los libros nos gustan los libros les gustan los libros |
This idiomatic construction can employ the indirect object pronoun as the subject of a sentence. In addition, these verbs can also be joined with the infinitive form of a verb which follows:
We like to read - Nos gusta leer.
When constructing these idiomatic expressions, the indirect object precedes the verb. As Arelene Sieman pointed out, the distinctive set of so-called "Indirect Object Pronoun" verbs can only be conjugated in the third person singular or plural, depending on the grammatical number of the subject. In a later class, Profesora Schinkel also emphasized this point.
The following verbs require an indirect object pronoun (the le represents the pronoun in the infinitive). These verbs are intransitive and many of them connote a condition or emotion, or how a person feels about something/somebody, rather than an implemented transitive action:
convenirle to suit, be good for
encantarle to love something
entusiasmarle to be excited about something
faltarle to be missing something, to not have
fascinarle to fascinate, to be fascinated by
gustarle to like
hacerle falta to need something
importarle to care about something, to mind
interesarle to be interested in
quedarle to have something left, or remain
sobrarle to have more than enough of something
tocarle to be one's turn
For example:
I care about school. The word “School” is singular, so the verb, importar, will be in the third person singular, and we end up with: Me importa la escuela (literally: School is important to me).
Note that when using the English construction, the subject of this sentence is "I." However, when the sentence is translated into Spanish, the subject of the sentence becomes "School/Escuela" and the English subject pronoun "I" is transformed into the Spanish indirect object pronoun "me." The English speaker has to consciously implement this idiomatic exchange of the parts of a sentence. (which may create a certain momentary sense of befuddlement!)
In the sentence "I like books," the subject in Spanish is plural (books) so the verb will be conjugated in the third person plural: Me gustan los libros (literally: Books are pleasing to me).
Using this Spanish construction places the subject at the end of the sentence. Often at this point, a puzzled English speaker may then begin to belatedly question the sanity of the Spanish language!
Susana will be gone on the 24th of November and return the 8th of December.
Happy Thanksgiving!
