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

Thursday, 12 April 2012

What Sports Do You Like?

Introduction

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

SCENARIO

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

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

¿Qué deportes te gustan?

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

¿Que deportes le gustan (a usted)?

OUR TIP

The question is an invitation for you to say what sports you like/ don't like. When stating what you like/don't like, 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 sports you like/ don't like. Perhaps you want to say that:

You like a sport (single item);
You like some type of sports (plural items);
You like a list of sports;
You don't like a sport (single item);
You don't like a sport (plural items);
You don't like a list of sports;

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

Me gusta el fútbol (I like football/ soccer)
Me gusta jugar al fútbol (I like playing football/ soccer)
Me gustan los deportes de invierno (I like winter sports)
Me gustan los deportes de invierno y el baloncesto (I like winter sports and basketball)
No me gusta el fútbol (I don't like football)
No me gusta jugar al fútbol (I don't like playing football/ soccer)
No me gustan los deportes de invierno (I don't like winter sports)
No me gustan los deportes de invierno ni el baloncesto (I don't like winter sports nor basketball)