Let’s Talk About It: Your Full Guide to the “Hablar” Conjugation in Spanish

Let’s talk talking: are you the kind of person that feels energized by a good conversation? Or do you need lots of quiet time after going out with friends? What about the kinds of conversations you like to have: do you like small talk? Gossip? Discussing the economy? The point is, there are as many ways of talking as there are people and moods, and it is important to be able to communicate well, no matter the context.

In today’s lesson, we’re going to learn about the Spanish verb hablar, meaning to talk, or to speak. Over the course of this post, we’ll go over some key information on what kind of verb hablar is. We’ll also look at the different meanings of hablar, and lots of hablar conjugation for you to sink your teeth into. Once you’ve finished reading, there is a tailor-made Cloze collection at the bottom of this post for you to practice your new skills with.

So, without further ado, let’s talk!

What Kind of Verb is Hablar?

Drumroll, please…

If you’ve been following these posts for a while, you’re probably so used to irregular verbs that you no longer get phased by them at all. If this is the case, you’re in for a surprise. The verb hablar is a regular verb, meaning you’re about to have a much easier time. With regular verbs, conjugation is simpler and you can more intuitively fill in the blanks. Let me explain:

In Spanish, verbs always end either in ar (like sanar, to heal), er (like comer, to eat), or ir (like compartir, to share). These verbs all have stem sections, which are the parts that come before ar, er, or ir. In hablar’s case, the stem is “habl-”. What makes hablar a regular verb is that this stem never changes, no matter what tense or subject the verb is being conjugated with. This means that you can be 100% confident that in hablar conjugation, the verb will always start with “habl-”, which cuts a lot of the guesswork out of the equation for you.

If you’re curious about other regular verbs, feel free to check out some other posts on this blog, like the one for comer (to eat), or leer (to read).

The Different Meanings of Hablar

Now that we’ve established that hablar is a regular verb, you can rest assured that you’re in for a pretty easy ride when it comes to this lesson. The only complication you’ll really be facing is how to parse out the different meanings of hablar. Lucky for you, if you already speak English, this is an absolute cakewalk. The verb hablar is a single verb that means both to talk and to speak.

While in English you’d have to navigate which one is correct based on context, Spanish is more chilled-out in this regard, so you’d always use hablar no matter what. For example, if you wanted to ask “Do you speak Italian?”, you would say “¿Hablas italiano?”. Likewise, if you wanted to say “Let’s go talk to him”, you would say “Vámonos a hablar con él.” As you can see, there is no distinction between to talk, and to speak in Spanish, so you really have nothing to worry about when learning this verb!

Hablar Verbals

Because hablar is a relatively easy verb to learn, learning its verbal forms only requires a solid understanding of what verbals are, so let’s start with that first. Despite their confusing name, verbals occur when verbs don’t act like verbs in a given sentence. Instead, they act as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. This is usually because the sentence has a different active verb, so the inactive one is used just to make reference to an action, but not the one being undertaken within that sentence. Looking at some concrete examples will make this much clearer. Let’s take a look at three different verbal forms for hablar.

Infinitivo (infinitive)

The infinitive of the verb hablar is simply “hablar”. Easy, right? This verbal form is used in sentences with a different active verb, in which the verb hablar is left in its unconjugated state. For example:

• “Quiero hablar con mi hermana porque no la he visto en mucho tiempo.” -> “I want to talk to my sister because I haven’t seen her in a long time.”

In this sentence, the active, conjugated verb is querer, meaning to want, and hablar only acts as a qualifying word for the active verb.

Gerundio (gerund)

The gerund of the verb hablar is “hablando”. It is often used when the active verb in a sentence is the verb estar, to be, and when the action it is referring to is still ongoing. For example:

• “Claudia está hablando con un cliente. ¿Puedes esperar diez minutos?” -> “Claudia is talking to a client. Can you wait ten minutes?”.

As you can see, the active verb in the sentence is estar, and we use the gerund hablando because the action is still ongoing.

Participio (participle)

Only one more verbal to go! The participle of hablar is “hablado”, and this form is typically used when the active verb is haber, meaning to have. It is also used to organize compound verbs. As you will see in the compound verbs conjugation section later, the participle form reappears very frequently in Spanish conjugation. Here’s an example:

• “¿Has hablado con tu abuela? Te está esperando.” -> “Have you spoken to your grandmother? She is waiting for you.”

In this case, the active verb is actually haber, and the conjugation “has hablado” is a compound form of hablar, which is why the participle is used.

Now that we’ve covered verbals, the rest should be a breeze. Let’s do some proper hablar conjugation!

Beginner Hablar Conjugation

To begin these conjugation tables, let’s look at some of the most basic tenses for the verb hablar. These are the present (presente), the past perfect (el perfecto), the past imperfect (el imperfecto), and the future (futuro). With these four tenses in the bag, you’ll be well on your way to mastering the verb hablar and talking everyone’s ear off!

Subject	Presente (Present) “Talk/Speak”	Perfecto (Perfect) “Talked/Spoke”	Imperfecto (Imperfect) “Was Talking/Was Speaking”	Futuro (Future) “Will Talk/Will Speak”
Yo (I)	Hablo	Hablé	Hablaba	Hablaré
Tú (You) Vos (Latin America)	Hablas Hablás	Hablaste	Hablabas	Hablarás
El/Ella (He/She/It) Usted (You, formal)	Habla	Habló	Hablaba	Hablará
Nosotros (We)	Hablamos	Hablamos	Hablábamos	Hablaremos
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	Habláis Hablan	Hablasteis Hablaron	Hablabais Hablaban	Hablaréis Hablarán
Ellos/Ellas (They/Them)	Hablan	Hablaron	Hablaban	Hablarán

Example Sentences for Beginner Hablar Conjugation

• Present: “Julia, ¿hablas francés?” -> “Julia, do you speak French?”
• Perfect: “¿Ya le hablasteis a vuestro jefe sobre vuestras vacaciones?” -> “Have you already spoken to your boss about your holidays?”
• Imperfect: “Antes hablaba mucho en clase, pero ahora se porta mejor” -> “She used to talk a lot in class, but now she behaves better.”
• Future: “Estoy en una reunión. Hablaremos más tarde.” -> “I’m in a meeting. We’ll talk later.”

Hablar Conjugation for Intermediate Learners

As you can see, the verb hablar is pretty straightforward and intuitive. If you feel confident with beginner verbs, why not try your hand at some of the compound verbs in the following table? Let’s look at the compound perfect preterite (pretérito perfecto compuesto), the pluperfect (pluscuamperfecto), and the future perfect (futuro compuesto).

Subject	Pretérito perfecto compuesto (Compound Perfect Preterite) “Have talked/spoken”	Pluscuamperfecto (Pluperfect) “Had talked/spoken”	Futuro Compuesto (Future Perfect) “Will have talked/spoken”
Yo (I)	He hablado	Había hablado	Habré hablado
Tu (You) Vos (Latin America)	Has hablado	Habías hablado	Habrás hablado
El/Ella (He/She/It) Usted (You, formal)	Ha hablado	Había hablado	Habrá hablado
Nosotros (We)	Hemos hablado	Habíamos hablado	Habremos hablado
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	Habeís hablado Han hablado	Habíais hablado Habían hablado	Habréis hablado Habrán hablado
Ellos/Ellas (Them)	Han hablado	Habían hablado	Habrán hablado

Example Sentences for Intermediate Hablar Conjugation

• Compound Perfect Preterite: “He hablado con Sandra y hemos hecho las paces.” -> “I talked to Sandra and we made up.”
• Pluperfect: “Cuando entraron a ofrecerle un ascenso, se dieron cuenta que Ricardo había hablado con su jefe porque quería renunciar.” -> “When they came in to offer him a raise, they realized that Ricardo had just spoken to his boss because he wanted to quit.”
• Future Perfect: “Estoy segura que ya habrán hablado con el médico cuando lleguemos.” -> “I’m sure that they’ll have already spoken to the doctor when we get there.”

Advanced Hablar Conjugation

Still on a roll? That’s great! If you’re ready for something a bit more challenging, let’s have a look at subjunctive tenses. In Spanish, the subjunctive is typically used to describe uncertainty and doubt, so they’re a great tense family to learn if you want to add some sophistication to your speech. Let’s look at the present subjunctive (subjuntivo presente), the subjunctive imperfect preterite (subjuntivo pretérito imperfecto), and the future subjunctive (subjuntivo futuro).

Subject	Present Subjunctive (subjuntivo presente) “Talk/Speak” (uncertain)	Subjunctive imperfect preterite (subjuntivo pretérito imperfecto) “Were to have talked/spoken”	Future Subjunctive (Subjuntivo Futuro) “Were to talk/speak”
Yo (I)	Hable	Hablara or Hablase	Hablare
Tú (You) Vos (Latin America)	Hables	Hablaras or Hablases	Hablares
El/Ella (He/She/It) Usted (Formal)	Hable	Hablara or Hablase	Hablare
Nosotros (We)	Hablemos	Habláramos or Hablásemos	Habláremos
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	Habléis Hablen	Hablarais or Hablaseis Hablaran or Hablasen	Hablareis Hablaren
Ellos/Ellas (Them)	Hablen	Hablaran or Hablasen	Hablaren

Example Sentences for Advanced Hablar Conjugation

• Present Subjunctive: “Cuando hables con él, sabrás porqué no vino a tu fiesta.” -> “When you talk to him, you’ll know why he didn’t come to your party.”
• Subjunctive Imperfect Preterite: “Si hablarais mejor el inglés, podríais iros a estudiar a Los Angeles” -> “If you spoke better English, you would be able to go study in Los Angeles.”
• Future Subjunctive: “Si se hablaren, estoy segura de que se enamorarían” -> “If they were to speak to one another, I am sure they would fall in love.”

Conditional Hablar Conjugation

Congratulations! You’re doing fantastically well. If you’re looking for one more tense to really add to your Spanish vocabulary, the conditional is where it’s at. With the conditional, you can express what would happen if certain conditions are met. For example, you might want to tell a Spanish friend that you would speak Portuguese if you had the time to learn it. For that, you’d use a conditional form of the verb hablar. Let’s look at the simple conditional (condicional), and the perfect conditional (condicional perfecto).

Subject	Condicional (Conditional) “Would talk/speak”	Condicional Perfecto (Perfect Conditional) “Would have talked/spoken”
Yo (I)	Hablaría	Habría hablado
Tu (You) Vos (Latin America)	Hablarías Hablarías	Habrías hablado
El/Ella (He/She/It) Usted (You, formal)	Hablaría	Habría hablado
Nosotros (We)	Hablaríamos	Habríamos hablado
Vosotros (You, plural) Ustedes (Latin America)	Hablaríais Hablarían	Habríais hablado Habrían hablado
Ellos/Ellas (They/Them)	Hablarían	Habrían hablado

Example Sentences for Conditional Hablar Conjugation

• Conditional: “¿Si te pidiera perdón, hablarías con ella? -> “If she apologized, would you speak to her?”
• Perfect Conditional: “Habrían hablado antes si estuvieran en la misma clase” -> “They would have talked before if they had been in the same class.”

Conclusion

As much as it is important to learn irregular verbs, it is great to give yourself a break and split up really hard lessons with easier ones. I hope this hablar conjugation lesson has been able to be one of those easier ones for you. Hablar really is a fantastic, versatile verb that allows you to express things as diverse as talking to your family or speaking Japanese! If you need a refresher, feel free to look over individual parts of this post again.

We went over the kind of verb hablar is, the different meanings of the verb, so verbal forms to use, and several conjugation tables you can consult no matter your Spanish level. Finally, If you’re in the mood to keep learning, I encourage you to try your hand at the hablar Cloze Collection at the bottom of this post, which has been designed with this specific lesson in mind. Thank you so much for following along, and talk soon!