Me gustaría

'Me gustaría' was introduced in Lesson 1.2 and knowing so little about Spanish my mind accepted it with ease! As I've progressed to Lesson 5.1 I researched some rules of grammar and found 'me' was either a direct object, indirect object or reflexive pronoun. Reflexive doesn't seem to fit - that would be 'I would like myself' not? So why is 'me' put in front of gustaría? Is it another type of pronoun or is the term 'me gustaria' a one-of-a-kind phrase?

"Me" here is an indirect object. The verb *gustar* means, literally, to be pleasing to. Thus, though we would translate *Me gusta bailar* as "I like to dance," it literally means "To dance is pleasing to me." *Gustaría* is the conditional tense of *gustar*. See this Rocket Spanish grammar page for a fuller explanation and examples of other verbs that work the same way as gustar: *__http://www.rocketlanguages.com/spanish/like_lack_love.php__*

Gracias, my mind is once again at ease!