Before you can say what you like, you need a small handful of words for the things people do in their free time — el tiempo libre (the free time). Some of these are nouns, the names of things: el fútbol, la música. Some are verbs in their plain "to do" form — what Spanish calls the infinitive: leer (to read), bailar (to dance). Learn them as they come; the grammar that joins them up is gentle, and it comes next.
| Spanish | Say it | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| el fútbol | el FOOT-bol | football |
| la música | la MOO-see-ka | music |
| leer | leh-AIR | to read |
| bailar | bigh-LAR | to dance |
| nadar | na-DAR | to swim |
| dibujar | dee-boo-HAR | to draw |
| los videojuegos | los vee-deh-oh-HWEH-gos | video games |
| el cine | el SEE-neh | the cinema |
| montar en bici | mon-TAR en BEE-see | to ride a bike |
A quick note on el and la. Every Spanish noun is either "masculine" or "feminine" — it is how the language sorts its nouns, and it tells you which word for "the" to use. El goes with the masculine ones (el fútbol), la with the feminine (la música). You don't have to work out why; you learn the noun and its little word together, as a pair.
The word fútbol is English wearing a Spanish coat — Spanish borrowed "football" by ear and respelled it to fit its own sounds, accent and all. Spanish does this often: a borrowed word is reshaped until it reads exactly as it sounds.
Here is the single most useful phrase in the lesson: me gusta (meh GOOS-ta). It is how you say I like something. You put it in front of one thing, or in front of a "to do" verb:
Me gusta el fútbol. — I like football.
Me gusta la música. — I like music.
Me gusta leer. — I like reading (literally "I like to read").
Me gusta nadar. — I like swimming.
If something is the opposite — you'd rather not — you put no in front: no me gusta. No me gusta el fútbol means "I don't like football". Nothing else changes; the no turns the whole thing over.
There's a quiet oddity worth a moment. Gustar doesn't really mean "to like" — it means closer to "to please". So me gusta el fútbol is, underneath, "football pleases me". That's why the phrase feels back-to-front to an English ear. You don't have to translate it that way — only notice it, because it explains the change coming on the next page.
Tap each card — the front is Spanish, the back is the meaning:
J.R.R. Tolkien — the man who wrote The Lord of the Rings — was first of all a philologist, a professional scholar of languages. He invented whole languages for his elves, Quenya and Sindarin, building them from real roots the way Spanish itself grew out of Latin. He said the stories came out of the languages, not the other way round — he made the words first, and the world followed.
Remember that gustar really means "to please". That one fact explains the only tricky part of today. When the thing you like is plural — more than one, like los videojuegos (video games) — the phrase changes its ending to match. You add an n: me gustan.
One thing, or a "to do" verb → me gusta. More than one thing → me gustan. That's the whole of it. The n is the plural showing up at the end of the verb, the way it pleases more than one thing.
You'll slip on this sometimes, and that's the right way to learn it — your ear will start to feel when the n belongs. A useful habit: glance at the thing you like. If you can count more than one of it, reach for gustan. If it's a single thing, or an action, stay with gusta.
The word vídeo rides on Latin too — it comes from videre, "to see", the same root that gives English "vision" and "video". Los videojuegos is literally "the see-games". Half the words you meet in Spanish are old Latin in a new accent.
English uses one word, "play", for two quite different things — you "play football" and you "play the guitar". Spanish keeps them apart, with two separate verbs. It's a small thing, but knowing it early saves a muddle later.
Notice jugar a — when you play a sport or a game, a little a slips in ("play at football", almost). With instruments, there's no a — you say tocar la guitarra. For now, learn the two whole phrases and don't worry about the rule behind the a; it will settle in.
¿Qué te gusta hacer? (keh teh GOOS-ta ah-SAIR) — "What do you like to do?" The natural question to ask a friend.
And two small words for when: los fines de semana (los FEE-nes deh seh-MA-na) — "at weekends" — and a veces (a VEH-ses) — "sometimes". Drop them on the end: Me gusta leer a veces.
Putting it together: Los fines de semana me gusta montar en bici. — "At weekends I like riding a bike." You now have enough to say something true about yourself.
The two "plays" split along an old line. Tocar first meant "to touch" — you touch the strings or keys of an instrument — while jugar comes from Latin iocari, "to joke, to sport". So one "play" is about touching, the other about play itself.
Fresh one. You learned bailar (to dance). How do you say I like dancing? Three words.
Write three or four short lines about your free time, in Spanish. Use me gusta for the things you enjoy, no me gusta for one you'd skip, and try at least one plural with me gustan. If you can, slip in a veces or los fines de semana. Keep it true to you — short is fine.
For example: Me gusta leer. No me gusta nadar. A veces me gustan los videojuegos. Now make it yours.
strong You reached for me gusta with a single thing and me gustan with a plural — that is exactly the choice this lesson turns on, and you made it land. Putting no me gusta in front of the one you'd skip is a clean, true sentence.
try this Before you pick gusta or gustan, glance at the thing itself — can you count more than one of it? If yes, let the verb grow its n. That one glance catches most of the wobbles.
to add One small thing would lift this — a word for when. Slip a veces or los fines de semana onto the front of a line, and suddenly you're more than listing — you're telling someone about your week.
Sit down with Dad for any of these. You won't catch every word — that's not the point. Let the sound of the language wash over you, and listen for the handful you now know. Heavier titles flagged for a chat first.
Pick out the verbs for hobbies — jugar, tocar, practicar — and notice which activities sound close to English.
You learned the words for what people do in their free time, and the one structure that carries the whole conversation — me gusta for a single thing, me gustan when there's more than one, and no me gusta when you'd rather not. You can ask a friend back, and say when. Try one sentence out loud today, to Dad. ¿Qué te gusta hacer, Florence?
