15 Preferences, likes and dislikes, pain, and giving recommendations
Chapter objectives
In this chapter, you will learn to:
- Express preferences, likes and dislikes, and pain by using verbs like GUSTAR and DOLER
- Ask diagnostic questions about oral hygiene
- Give recommendations about oral hygiene
Expressing preferences, likes and dislikes, and pain: verbs like GUSTAR and DOLER
Verbs like those in the following list express sensations, feelings, emotions, or reactions that a subject produces in a person. In English, one might express “I like pizza”, however, in Spanish the idea is linguistically expressed as “Pizza is pleasing to me.
- doler (to hurt)
- gustar (to like, literally ‘to be pleasing to’)
- encantar (to love, literally ‘to be very pleasing to’)
- molestar (to bother)
- preocupar (to worry)
View the following presentation and check your understanding with the exercises on the second slide.
Práctica Escrita 1
- Write 3 foods you like and 3 foods you dislike. Follow the examples:
Me gusta el sushi. / Me encantan los tacos.
No me gustan los fideos. - Write 3 activities you like and 3 activities you don’t like. Follow the examples:
Me encanta cantar y bailar.
No me gusta correr.
Asking patients about preferences with GUSTAR and other verbs
To ask questions with GUSTAR you can use the same word order and change the inflection in your voice to turn a statement into a question.
| ¿Le gustan las cerdas suaves o duras? | Do you like soft or hard bristles? |
| ¿Qué sabor le gusta? | What flavor do you like? |
You can also use the verb PREFERIR (to prefer) to ask or talk about preferences. PREFERIR is an irregular verb with a stem change. The last vowel of the verb’s stem changes from E → IE. This stem change only happens in the singular forms and the third-person plural.
| PREFERIR to prefer |
|
| yo prefiero |
nosotros preferimos |
| tú prefieres |
vosotros preferís |
| usted / él / ella prefiere |
ustedes / ellos / ellas prefieren |
Giving recommendations about oral hygiene
When giving recommendations to patients there are several structures we can use:
- The imperative
- The verb DEBER + [an infinitive verb]
- The conditional: polite and soft suggestions
- The subjunctive with expressions of recommendation
1. The imperative
Review the imperative tense.
2. The verb DEBER + [an infinitive verb]
The verb DEBER + [infinitive verb] expresses obligation. You can use this to express seriousness when giving a recommendation to a patient.
| Debe lavarse los dientes después de comer. | You should brush your teeth after eating. |
| Debe usar hilo dental antes de cepillarse los dientes. | You should floss before brushing your teeth. |
3. The conditional: polite and soft suggestions
You can use the conditional tense to make your suggestions sound softer or more polite. DEBER and PODER are commonly used for this purpose.
The conditional conjugations of DEBER and PODER:
| DEBER |
PODER |
||
| debería | deberíamos | podría | podríamos |
| deberías | deberíais | podrías | podríais |
| debería | deberían | podría | podrían |
| Debería hablar con un especialista. | You should speak with a specialist. |
| Podría cambiar de pasta dental. | You could switch toothpaste. |
Práctica Escrita 2
Transform the following imperative sentences two times:
- To the DEBER + [infinitive] form
- To the conditional form using DEBER
Follow this example: Enjuágue la boca con agua tibia y sal. →
- Debe enjuagar la boca con agua tibia y sal.
- Debería enjuagar la boca con agua tibia y sal.
- Consulte a su médico antes de hacer eso.
- Tome menos bebidas con azúcar.
- Cuida mejor su higiene dental.
- Regrese en seis meses.
- Use un cepillo eléctrico.
4. The subjunctive with expressions or recommendation
The subjunctive is called a verbal mood. Rather than indicating the time or space, it indicates the way a speaker refers to an action or idea. Up until now, you have learned to conjugate verbs using the indicative mood and the imperative mood. The subjunctive is most frequently used in subordinate clauses. When we have an expression of recommendation in the main clause, we use the subjunctive in the subordinate clause:
Práctica Oral 1
Record yourself saying the following phrases. Attempt saying each phrase until the speech recognition software recognizes your pronunciation as correct. Once you are finished, take a screen shot of the completed activity to hand in as evidence you completed it.
IMPORTANT: THIS MAY ONLY WORK ON GOOGLE CHROME