Spanish

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Hablar (to speak) [a-blár] Present

🔊 In the app, every line has its own play button: the conjugated form is spoken together with its pronoun. So are the infinitive and the example sentence. Speed adjustable from 50% to 150%.

💡 Memory hook
HABLAR sounds like 'gabble' - to gabble means to talk fast, and that's exactly what HABLAR means: to speak/talk!

⚠️ Worth knowing
Model verb for -AR verbs. The H is silent: [a-blár]. The vosotros form 'habláis' is specific to Spain.

💬 Example sentence
Presente: Yo hablo español todos los días. (I speak Spanish every day.)

• In everyday Spanish, the subject pronoun is often left out: people say « Soy » rather than « Yo soy » — the verb ending alone is enough to show who's speaking.
• Accents change the meaning or tense of a word: for example « hablo » (I speak, present) and « habló » (he/she spoke, past) are neither written nor pronounced the same way.
• Unlike English, which has a single verb 'to be', Spanish has two: SER for lasting traits (identity, profession, origin) and ESTAR for temporary states or location. « Soy médico » (I'm a doctor, by profession) is a different kind of fact than « Estoy cansado » (I'm tired, right now) — picking the wrong one can change the meaning of the sentence.
• When the direct object of a verb is a specific person, Spanish adds a small word, the 'personal a', right before it: « Veo la casa » (I see the house) but « Veo a Juan » (I see Juan). English has no equivalent for this — it's easy to forget, but in Spanish it's almost always required before a person.
• For the plural 'you', Spanish has two different forms depending on the region: Spain uses « vosotros » (with its own verb ending), while Latin America almost always uses « ustedes » (which takes the same verb form as 'they'). This course includes both, since « vosotros » is everyday usage in Spain.
• Double negatives are not just allowed in Spanish — they're required: « No veo nada » literally means 'I don't see nothing', but it simply translates to 'I don't see anything'. Where English avoids stacking negative words, Spanish expects it: « No conozco a nadie » = 'I don't know anyone'.