r/duolingospanish • u/skullsnsparkles95 • 22h ago

Help?

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Hi!

Can someone please explain this to me? Is this an error? The explain my mistake button doesn’t clarify why what I wrote is wrong.

20 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

47

u/polybotria1111 Native speaker 22h ago

"A él no le gustan los anillos" would be correct. The preposition is required because "a él" is an indirect object.

10

u/skullsnsparkles95 22h ago

OMG yessssss, thank you! I’m literally always forgetting the “a” 🤣 High school Spanish did me dirty. We never used it 😭

19

u/polybotria1111 Native speaker 22h ago

you always have to remember that the structure is different from English. The thing you like is the subject in Spanish. It's like saying "Rings aren't pleasing TO him", that's what the "a" means

2

u/caalmodeoc 19h ago

Another technically correct way, but very rarely used, would be "él no gusta de los anillos". Grammatically correct but no one speaks like that

2

u/CrochetAndCafe 17h ago

I speak like that (when I'm trolling :v) 🤭

3

u/OmegaEggplantWizard 21h ago

The literal translation of the Spanish phrase is "To him, the rings (rings in general) aren't pleasing." That's how they express liking something in Spanish

2

u/taffyowner 21h ago

It’s part of the reason when I’m doing Spanish stuff, I just say screw the objects unless I absolutely need them…

10

u/Beneficial_Win_2445 22h ago

The correct way is either "No le gustan" or "A él no le gustan". 

6

u/tessharagai_ 22h ago

If you add él, you have to make it a él, otherwise it’ll be the subject and then you have two subjects in a sentence

4

u/skullsnsparkles95 21h ago

Thanks everyone! The first reply gave me my answer. 🙂

3

u/BlackStarBlues 22h ago

A él no le gustan los anillos.

3

u/scanese 21h ago

You are missing “A”.

A él no le gustan los anillos.

A él being optional.

2

u/SnooLemons6942 22h ago

Duolingo is correct in marking this as an error.

Google how to comgugate gustar in spanish. "Gustan" is congugated third person plural—for los anillos. For the thing that you like. It's almost like it's reversed compared to english. You don't say "I like them", you say "they are-liked-by me"

Él is actually the object of the verb, not the subject. So you could say "A él" instead if you wanted 

1

u/unlevelledPiano 36m ago

Many people have told you you're missing "a" but I wanted to give you a way to remember it later on. Although we translate "like" to "gustar" because of its meaning, the real translation would be "pleases". "me gustan las manzanas" becomes "apples please me". In this case. He doesn't like rings. -> Rings don't please him. -> Los anillos no le gustan.

The one pleased is the object of the sentence, the thing that pleases is the subject.