The structure of gustar con be confusing to students because it does not translate literally between English and Spanish. I always suggest students put aside the translation “I like…” when using gustar.
Gustar = "is pleasing to" or "pleases"
Me gusta el español. = Spanish is pleasing to me. El español is the subject of the sentence, so gustar has the ending that corresponds to “el español”: -A.
Me gustan las novelas de fantasía. = Fantasy novels are pleasing to me. "Las novelas" is the subject, so gustar has the plural ending: -AN.
Me gusta leer y mirar televisión. = Reading and watching TV are pleasing to me. The subject here is a list of VERBS (leer y mirar). The ending for gustar in these cases is always singular: -A.
Who or what is being pleased is shown by one of the indirect object pronouns and comes right before the conjugation of gustar:
Me gustan las novelas. = Novels are pleasing to me. Me = "me" or "to me"
If my daughter likes novels, the me will change to le ("to her")
Le gustan las novelas.
In order to clarify that it's my daughter I'm talking about, I add "a mi hija" (to my daughter).
Le gustan las novelas a mi hija. OR A mi hija le gustan las novelas. (These sentences are equivalent. The change in order doesn't change the meaning in any way.)
The INDIRECT OBJECT PRONOUNS are:
| Me | Nos |
| Te | Os |
| Le | Les |
Mandatory: You HAVE TO include an indirect object pronoun.
Optional: If you choose to clarify the person, you must use "A (the person/people)". Context will tell you whether you need to clarify the person or not.
What about "se gusta"? Some speakers use the form "se gusta", especially from Mexico. While this is a widely accepted form in Mexico, it is not accepted in other regions. In fact, it sounds odd (and almost offensive) in other areas. If this is something in your speech pattern, I strongly recommend you focus to learn the more standard usage. When it comes to assessments for this course, I do not accept "se gusta" as a correct term.
Yepes Grammar Manual Unit 46. Construcciones valorativas (como gustar)
The powerpoint show below explains the use of gustar in sentences. Pay attention to which part of the sentence affects the ending of gustar and how you show who is pleased (or "likes") something.