Love-Spanish.com: What Do You Like Doing?

Friday, 6 April 2012

What Do You Like Doing?

Introduction

This post deals with talking about likes and dislikes in general and in particular activities you like or dislike.

SCENARIO

Imagine you are talking to a relative, a friend or a colleague. You are talking about personal likes/ dislikes. At some point, the other person says to you something like: "what do you like doing?"

In Spanish, the other person could choose to be less formal and say:

¿Qué te gusta hacer?

Alternatively, he/ she could choose to be more formal and say:

¿Que le gusta hacer (a usted)?

OUR TIP

The question is an invitation for you to say what you like/ don't like doing. When stating what you like/ don't like doing, you DO NOT need to be concerned about the level of formality in the other person's question. Your main concern should be about communicating what your likes/ dislikes. Perhaps what you want to say is that you:

Like all sorts of activities;
Like one activity;
Like two or more activities;
Don't like a particular activity;
Don't like two or more activities;

Here are some examples of how you could say what you like/ don't like doing:

Me gusta hacer de todo (I like doing everything);
Me gusta jugar al tenis (I like playing tennis);
Me gusta jugar al tenis e ir de compras (I like playing tennis and shopping);
No me gusta hacer deporte (I don't like taking part in sports);
No me gusta hacer deporte ni ver la tele (I don't like taking part in sports nor watching tv);