Defective verbs (soler, gustar, placer, doler) are only conjugated in certain tenses. In this tutorial we will deal with defective verbs that generally appear only in the third person, such as "gustar", which expresses likes and dislikes, and "doler" which expresses hurt, grief or regret. Let´s see the following examples:

- Me gusta el fútbol. (I like soccer.)
- Me gusta eso. (I like that. The pronoun "eso" replaces "el fútbol".)
- (Eso) me gusta. (I like that.)

- No me duele la cabeza. (My head doesn´t hurt./I do not have a headache.)
- No me duele esto. (This doesn´t hurt. The pronoun "esto" replaces "la cabeza".)
- (Esto) no me duele. (This does not hurt.)

  Note from the examples how the verb agrees with the object, and note how the object in Spanish becomes the subject in English. The basic rule with these verbs is to conjugate them using the third person (singular or plural) and indirect object pronouns:

- Me gusta el clima de Tailandia. (I like Thailand´s weather.)
- No te gusta nadar. (You don´t like to swim.)
- A ella le gustan los chicos altos. (She likes tall guys.)
- No nos gusta mucho salir por la noche. (We don´t like a lot to go out at night.)
- ¿Os gusta comer pavo asado? (Do you guys like to eat roasted turkey?)
- A ustedes les gusta viajar. (You guys like to travel.)
- Me duele que me ignores. (It hurts that you ignore me.)
- ¿Estás bien? ¿Te duele algo? (Are you OK? Does anything hurt?)

  Note how in third person sentences we use prepositional pronouns to clarify the object, and note also how they precede the indirect object:

- A ella no le duele la rodilla. (Her knee does not hurt.)
- A ellas no les gusta ir al cine. (They don´t like to go to the movies.)
 
  The following is a small list of verbs that are conjugated like "gustar" and "doler":