antes me gustabas
/antes me ɡustabas/from spelling rules
In Spanish, "I used to like you" is translated as antes me gustabas.
This phrase is used to express that the speaker once had romantic feelings for someone, but those feelings no longer exist. The word antes (meaning before or formerly) is included to establish the "used to" aspect of the English expression.
What does it mean word for word?
Literally, the phrase translates to "before you were pleasing to me".
Which one should you use?
In English, the speaker is the subject of the sentence. However, in this Spanish construction, the person being liked is actually the grammatical subject.
How does it change in a sentence?
When addressing someone formally using the pronoun usted, you should change the form to antes me gustaba.
How do you pronounce it?
/antes me ɡustabas/
Did you know?
- The word antes shares a common ancestor with the English word 'ante', which is used in poker to describe a stake put into the pot before dealing.
- If you replace gustabas with caías bien, the meaning shifts from romantic attraction to simply liking someone's personality.
- The word antes can also be used in Spanish to mean 'rather' or 'instead' in certain contexts, which is a completely different usage from 'formerly'.
Examples in context
- Antes me gustabas mucho.I used to like you a lot.
- La verdad es que antes me gustabas.The truth is that I used to like you.
- No lo olvides, antes me gustabas.Don't forget it, I used to like you.
Example conversation
Lucía and Javier are catching up after many years apart.
- LucíaEs extraño verte después de tanto tiempo.It is strange to see you after so much time.
- JavierSí, ¿sigues pensando en nosotros?Yes, do you still think about us?
- LucíaNo, pero antes me gustabas.No, but I used to like you.
- JavierVaya, no me lo esperaba.Wow, I wasn't expecting that.
Sources
- IPA marked “from spelling rules” is derived from standard Spanish spelling, where Wiktionary gives none.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries antes, me, CC BY-SA 4.0.
