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Verbos afectivos
There are a couple dozen Spanish verbs which must be conjugated with an indirect object pronoun. This grammatical construction does not exist in English, but it’s not difficult once you get used to it.
Por ejemplo…
Me gusta esta canción. | I like this song. | |
Nos falta un coche. | We don’t have a car. |
Verbs that require indirect object pronoun
Note: le represents the pronoun with the infinitive.
aburrirle | to bore | |
apasionarle | to be passionate about | |
bastarle | to be sufficient | |
caerle bien caerle mal |
to like (someone) to dislike (someone) |
|
chiflarle | to really like | |
convenirle | to suit, be good for | |
costarle | to be difficult | |
darle asco | to disgust | |
disgustarle | to disgust | |
dolerle | to be painful | |
encantarle | to love something | |
engancharle | to get hooked by/on | |
entretenerle | to entertain | |
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 | |
molestarle | to bother | |
parecerle | to see | |
picarle | to itch | |
preocuparle | to be worried about | |
quedarle | to have something left | |
sobrarle | to have more than enough of something | |
tocarle | to be one’s turn | |
volverle loco | to really like, be driven wild |
How do these Spanish verbs work?
- The indirect object precedes the verb.
- The verb can only be conjugated in the third person singular or plural, depending on the grammatical number of the subject which follows.
- In negatives, no precedes the indirect object pronoun.
For example: "I care about school." 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").
In the sentence "I like books," the subject is plural, so the verb will be conjugated in the third person plural: Me gustan los libros (literally "Books are liking to me").
"I don’t like books" = No me gustan los libros.
Indirect object pronoun verbs can also be used with an infinitive as the subject.
Por ejemplo…
Nos gusta leer. | We like to read. | |
No nos gusta leer. | We like to read. |
Indirect object pronoun verb conjugations
gustarle – to like | ||||||
me | gusta | el libro. | me | gustan | los libros. | |
te | gusta | el libro. | te | gustan | los libros. | |
le | gusta | el libro. | le | gustan | los libros. | |
nos | gusta | el libro. | nos | gustan | los libros. | |
os | gusta | el libro. | os | gustan | los libros. | |
les | gusta | el libro. | les | gustan | los libros. |
Note: Le can refer to him, her, it, or you (Ud.) and les can refer to them or you (Uds.), so to clarify, you can add a + person at the beginning of the sentence:
A él le gusta el arte. | He likes art. | |
A Ana le quedan 100 pesos. | Ana has 100 pesos left. | |
A ellos les entusiasma viajar. | They are excited about traveling. |
Remember that the preposition a must be used whenever a verb is followed by a person – learn more.
More about Spanish indirect object pronoun verbs
Indirect Object Verb Quizzes
Think you’ve got it? Test yourself on verbos afectivos:
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Related lessons
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