Lesson 42: To like, I like, I would like, I could
We actually have all the tools to handle a verb such as 'to like' except that in Spanish we don't say 'I like' - we say 'It pleases me' which means we need to think about how we handle the verb a little differently
I get quite philosophical in this area because it shows a "mindfulness" in the Spanish lanuguage that does not exist in English.
In English we say "I like the car", in Spanish "The car pleases me". Its a recognition that the car does something to you rather than you doing something to the car and a line of thinking which underlies Mindfulness, Budhism and some more enlightened ways of thinking.
Gustar - to like
From a learning point of view it means we only have two forms of the verb to learn for most situations.
- "It pleases (me/you/her/him/them/us)"
- "They please (me/you/her/him/them/us)"
 Spanish |  English |
|---|---|
| Gusta | It pleases |
| Me gusta | It pleases me (I like it) |
| Me gusta mucho | It pleases me alot (I like it alot) |
Obviously this means you want to avoid the very common error some learners make:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Me gusto | I please me (I like me) |
When trying to say they like a certain thing because they follow the standard Spanish rule of replacing the 'ar' of a verb with 'o' to get the I form.
So the only time we need to change the verb ending is when we talk about "it" pleasing you or "them" pleasing you.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Me gustan | They please me (I like them) |
I would - the 'ia' sound recap
So we saw the key sound in "I would" is 'ia' being added to the end of the verb:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Hablaría | I/he/she/it/you (formal) would speak |
| Hablaríamos | We would speak |
| Hablarían | They would speak |
| No hablarían | They wouldn't speak |
I would like
And so we know exactly how to say "it would" and "they would" which we need to express things like "It would please me (I would like)" and "They would please me (They would like)".
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Me gustaría | It would please me (I would like) |
| Me gustaría comer ahora | It would please me to eat now (I would like to eat now) |
| Nos gustaría comer ahora | It would please us to eat now (We would like to eat now) |
Of course we do sometimes use this way of talking in English but usually only in "Old English" or to be very elegant. So once again we see the elegant side of English is the everyday side of Spanish!
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Me gustaría verte | It would please me to see you (I would like to see you) |
I will be able - I could
'Poder' as we've seen means "to be able" so when we talk about it in the future tense we literally say things like "I will be able" which you can also do in English ... but more normally we say "I could".
So applying our 'ia' rule for "would" we should be taking off the 'er' and adding 'ería' to get 'Podería'. HOWEVER this is one of those verbs so commonly used in everyday life that it has evolved a little over time.
The 'e' sound in the middle slows the speaker down and so over time it dropped out and we are left with:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Podría | I/he/she/it/you (formal) could |
| Podrían | They / you guys could |
| Podrías | You (informal) could |
| Podriamos | We (informal) could |
| ¿Podrias venir a mi casa? | Could you come to my house? |
| ¿Podrias decirme algo? | Could you tell me something? |
And now a mega sentence - "Could you tell me if you want to come?" - which we handle as always with a break down into parts:
- "Could you tell me" - 'Podrías decirme'
- "if" - 'si'
- "you want" - 'quieres'
- "to come" - 'venir'
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| ¿Podrias decirme si quieres venir? | Could you tell me if you want to come? |