ayuda con "gustar"

Hola. Which of the following, if either, is correct to say. ¿Le gustaría ir conmigo?, o ¿Gustarías ir conmigo? (Would you like to go with me?) Gracias por al ayuda. <--(¿correcto decir esta?)

Hola. "Gustar" is a tricky verb. Though we usually translate it as if it means "to like," _literally_ it means "to give pleasure to." If you think of it in that way, you'll find it easier to know how to use it. Your first version, ¿Le gustaría ir conmigo?, means "would he/she/you (formal) like to go with me?" (i.e., would it give pleasure to him/her/you (formal) to go with me). If you wanted to use the informal tú form, you'd say ¿Te gustaría ir conmigo? Your second version (would you give pleasure to ? to go with me) doesn't really make much sense. In your "thank you," you should say "la ayuda," not "al ayuda." Probably that was just a typo reversing the letters, but I thought I'd mention it just in case. I hope this helps.

Gracias nohablo, it does help. I am not skilled enough to pick up on the subtle differences in meaning of the conjugations. Thanks for the correction on "al ayuda" It was a typo. When I asked if it was correct I meant the use of "por" instead of "para". I still have trouble with determining which to use when. Whenever I write in Spanish it is an educated guess (minimally educated :D ).

I'm glad it helped. Most verb conjugations are pretty straightforward, but there are a bunch of verbs that operate like "gustar." That is, they require an indirect object pronoun and they operate on or affect that pronoun. You've already seen how this works with gustar: *me gusta el libro *= the book gives pleasure to me = I like the book; *te gusta el libro* = the book gives pleasure to you = you like the book, etc. Some common verbs that act like this are *doler *(to be painful to; to hurt); *encantar* (to be enchanting to; to 'love');* faltar *(to be lacking to = to need); *fascinar* (to be fascinating to); *molestar* (to be bothersome to; to bother); and *parecer *(to seem; to appear to). Thus, if you want to say "Sometimes my back hurts" you'd say "A veces me duele la espalda" (at times, the back is painful to me). Similarly, "Me molestan las cucarachas" means I'm bothered by cockroaches (the cockroaches are bothersome to me). As for por/para, that drives me crazy, too! I think, though, that anytime you want to say "thank you for ____" you'd say "gracias *por *____." There may be exceptions, but in general, that's the case. So yes, you were correct. :D