Puedes hacer lo que gustes.

I realize this is correct but I don’t understand this. I thought the subject is “lo que” so that gustar would be guste… using gustes seems like saying you please what you can do

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The way I see it, “lo que” is the direct object of gustar, and the implicit subject is . I think this is another, possibly archaic, use of gustar, which here doesn’t take an indirect object. Consider:

Puedes hacer lo que gustes: You can do whatever you please.
Puedes hacer lo que te guste: You can do whatever pleases you / You can do whatever you like.

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Thanks… also building on your previous answer… Hacer lo que as you pointed out hacer que takes the subjunctive

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It’s not quite the same; the subjunctive after “hacer que” is mandatory, but in this case it conveys the meaning of “whatever”. Consider this:

Puedes decir lo que gustes: You can say whatever you please.

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thank you, you are right. And in this sentence it was never the use of the subjunctive that confused me but the subject
thinking
Me gustas… I like you (You please me)
lo que gustas…that which likes you…you please that which (of course this makes no sense0
but puedes hacer lo que gustes … you please that which you can do!!!

is that it? I think it makes sense to me. Thank you very much for your help and patience

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