How do you say 'liked' in Spanish?

Answer 1

This is a far more complex question that it seems. In English, we have a very simple verb structure, so we take it for granted that other languages would have a unique word for any situation. In this example, "liked" is the past tense of the verb "to like". It makes no difference who did the liking. The word remains the same (I liked, you (singular and plural) liked, we liked, they liked).

In Spanish, this is not the case. First, as a quirk in the way Spanish uses this sentiment, it is in reverse to the English utilization. (called a reflexive) In Spanish, you would say, literally ...pleases me, or ...is pleasureable to me. "Me gusta el coche". "The car pleases me". The subject is the car, not the person (me) doing the liking. In the past tense (preterit), this would be "Me gustó el coche"- I liked the car. The "gustó" is in the third person, to agree with "the car". In the plural, "I liked the cars", it would be "me gustaron los coches".

If this were not enough, Spanish has TWO past tenses, the preterit (above) and the inperfect. If you said "me gustaba el coche", it could be translated as "I liked the car", but more accurately, "I used to like the car" or "I was liking the car". This signifies action over a period of time in the past.

So...Just remember, when you want to know about a Spanish verb, you always have to include context: who did the action and when they do it.