Me caes bien - (Caer bien )

I was browsing over an older blog entry about the verb gustar, and realized that I needed to make good on a promise I made, and that promise was to talk about caer bien, which we could say is a close relative of gustar.  So today I'm making good on that promise.   So without further ado....

Caer by itself means to fall.   Caer bien literaly translated means "to fall well".  So when we translate our phrase:


Me caes bien
You fall well on me


 Great, that doesn't make much sense, does it? Now that we've gotten our literal translation out of the way, which isn't doing us much good, let's talk about what this really means.

In Spanish when you say someone "falls well on you", what you're really saying is that you like them.  So let's revisit our example:

Me caes bien
I like you

Great! Now things are starting to make sense.

Here's another example:

¿Te caigo bien?
Do I fall well on you?

Or as we would actually say in English, "Do you like me?"

Now let's move on to something not quite so trivial.

Tu amiga me cae muy bien
I really like your friend

Me caen bien tus amigos
I like your friends

Caer bien works just like gustar, so if you understand how to use gustar, you' re already an expert on caer bien.

And unlike it's cousin gustar, there's nothing tricky here, it just means "To like someone".  If you're not familar with gustar or want to know what makes gustar tricky, you can read my entry on gustar by clicking here. 

You know, it's sad, but we don't always get along with everyone.  And you'll need to know how to say that too.  Fortunately, it's pan comido (really easy).

Tu amiga no me cae muy bien
I really don't like your friend

In fact, you actually have a few options to talk about how much you don't like someone.


Tu amiga me cae gorda
I really don't like your friend

And it's gordo if you're talking about a man. This is option actually slang.  Something a little more standard would be...

Tu amiga me cae mal
I don't like your friend

And well, if you REALLY don't like someone you can just say "Te odio"  - I hate you.  Obviously this is rather strong.

Well, that;s it for now.  If you've read my entry on gustar as well, you'll be completely prepared to talk about who you find attractive, and who you like as a friend, which is a very important distinction.

¡Chao!