Hablar Conjugation 101: Conjugate Hablar in Spanish

Hablar is a common verb for daily life situations. To help you use it correctly, in this guide, you’ll learn how to conjugate ‘hablar’ in all of the key tenses. Here is an overview of what we’ll cover:

Take Note: There are many tenses in Spanish. However, we don’t use them all. Many are simply old and outdated. As a result, in this guide, you’ll only learn the tenses you need to know to become fluent in Spanish. 

Overview of Hablar

Verb CharacteristicProperty
Verb Type-AR
IrregularNo
InfinitiveHablar
Gerund (Present Participle) FormHablando
Past Participle FormHablado
SynonymsDecir, Charlar, Platicar

Hablar can be translated as ‘to talk’ or ‘to speak’. For simplicity, we will only include the one translation in the conjugation examples included in the tables below. However, you could replace ‘to speak’ or ‘to talk’ without the conjugation being impacted.

Note: There are many tenses in Spanish. However, we don’t use them all. Some are simply old and outdated. As a result, in this guide, you’ll only learn the tenses you need to know to become fluent in Spanish.

Indicative Conjugations of Hablar

Present tense

Hablar is a regular -AR verb. The present tense of hablar can be used to talk about speaking in general and the languages you speak. For example, Julia habla español e inglés.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHabloI speak
HablasYou speak
Él / Ella
Usted
HablaHe/She speaks
You (formal) speak
NosotrosHablamosWe speak
VosotrosHabláisYou speak
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
HablanThey speak
You (plural) speak

Preterite tense

The preterite conjugation of ‘hablar’ describes how or to whom you spoke at a specific moment in the past. Hablé con Teddy hace rato.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHabléI spoke
HablasteYou spoke
Él / Ella
Usted
HablóHe/She spoke
You (formal) spoke
NosotrosHablamosWe spoke
VosotrosHablasteisYou spoke
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
HablaronThey spoke
You (plural) spoke

Imperfect tense

 The imperfect form of hablar allows you to describe the way you used to talk or speak in the past. For example, Juan hablaba muy bien español. Depending on the sentence, ‘hablar’ in the imperfect tense can be translated as ‘I used to speak/talk’ or ‘I spoke/talked’.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHablabaI spoke
HablabasYou spoke
Él / Ella
Usted
HablabaHe/She spoke
You (formal) spoke
NosotrosHablábamosWe spoke
VosotrosHablabaisYou spoke
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
HablabanThey spoke
You (plural) spoke

Near future

 The near future form of ‘hablar’ expresses talking to someone or speaking a language soon in the future. For instance: mañana voy a hablar con Jessica.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoVoy a hablarI’m going to speak
Vas a hablarYou’re going to speak
Él / Ella
Usted
Va a hablarHe/She is going to speak
You (formal) is going to speak
NosotrosVamos a hablarWe’re going to speak
VosotrosVais a hablarYou’re going to speak
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Van a hablarThey’re going to speak
You (plural) are going to speak

Future simple tense

The Spanish simple future refers to actions that you’ll speak with someone at some point in the future. Creo que hoy hablaré con Carlos.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHablaréI will speak
HablarásYou will speak
Él / Ella
Usted
HablaráHe/She will speak
You (formal) will speak
NosotrosHablaremosWe will speak
VosotrosHablaréisYou (formal) will speak
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
HablaránThey will speak
You (plural) will speak

Conditional tense

 The conditional form of ‘hablar’ conveys that someone would play something if certain circumstances are met. For example: si pudiéramos, hablaríamos con ella.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHablaríaI would speak
HablaríasYou would speak
Él / Ella
Usted
HablaríaHe/She would speak
You (formal) would speak
NosotrosHablaríamosWe would speak
VosotrosHablaríaisYou would speak
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
HablaríanThey would speak
You (plural) would speak

Present perfect tense

The present perfect conjugation of ‘hablar’ is formed with the verb ‘haber’ and the participle form of ‘hablar’ (hablado). This tense expresses that you have or haven’t spoken with someone in a moment close to the present. For instance, todavía no he hablado con ella.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHe habladoI have spoken
Has habladoYou have spoken
Él / Ella
Usted
Ha habladoHe/She has spoken
You (formal) have spoken
NosotrosHemos habladoWe have spoken
VosotrosHabéis habladoYou have spoken
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Han habladoThey have spoken
You (plural) have spoken

Past perfect

To conjugate the past perfect tense of ‘hablar’, you need to use the imperfect form of haber + hablado, which is the past participle form of ‘hablar’. In this tense, ‘hablar’ can express that you spoke with someone before some other reference point in the past. For example: todavía no había hablado con ella.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHabía habladoI had spoken
Habías habladoYou had spoken
Él / Ella
Usted
Había habladoHe/She had spoken
You (formal) had spoken
NosotrosHabíamos habladoWe had spoken
VosotrosHabíais habladoYou had spoken
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Habían habladoThey had spoken
You (plural) had spoken

Future perfect

The future perfect of ‘hablar’ is built by conjugating haber to the future tense and adding hablar’s past participle (hablado). This verb in the future perfect tense communicates you’ll speak to someone by or before a certain time in the future. Para el miércoles, habré hablado con ella.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHabré habladoI will have spoken
Habrás habladoYou will have spoken
Él / Ella
Usted
Habrá habladoHe/She will have spoken
You (formal) will have spoken
NosotrosHabremos habladoWe will have spoken
VosotrosHabréis habladoYou will have spoken
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Habrán habladoThey will have spoken
You (plural) will have spoken

Conditional perfect

The conditional perfect in Spanish describes hypothetical past actions or events that depend on a past condition. For example: si hubiera tenido tiempo, habría hablado con Luis.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHabría habladoI would have spoken
Habrías habladoYou would have spoken
Él / Ella
Usted
Habría habladoHe/She would have spoken
You (formal) would have spoken
NosotrosHabríamos habladoWe would have spoken
VosotrosHabríais habladoYou would have spoken
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Habrían habladoThey would have spoken
You (plural) would have spoken

Progressive tenses

The Spanish progressive tenses refer to actions that are in progress at the moment of speaking. We would use hablar to express that someone is speaking right now. For example, mi papá está hablando con mi hermano. The progressive conjugations of hablar are formed with estar (conjugated) + hablando.

Progressive TenseFormulaTranslation Example
PresentEstar (present) + hablandoI am speaking
PreteriteEstar (preterite) + hablandoYou were speaking
ImperfectEstar (imperfect) + hablandoHe was speaking
FutureEstar (future) + hablandoWe will be speaking
ConditionalEstar (conditional) + hablandoThey would be speaking

Hablar Subjunctive Conjugations

As a regular verb, the subjunctive conjugations of ‘hablar’ are formed by adding the corresponding endings to the stem habl-. The Spanish subjunctive mood is used to talk about wishes, suggestions or hypothetical situations.

Present subjunctive

The present subjunctive of ‘hablar’ can be used to talk about wishes or requests. For instance: Luis quiere que hable con Mandy.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHableI speak
HablesYou speak
Él / Ella
Usted
HableHe/She speaks
You (formal) speak
NosotrosHablemosWe speak
VosotrosHabléisYou speak
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
HablenThey speak
You (plural) speak

Present perfect subjunctive

Haber in the present subjunctive + hablado is the structure you must use to build the present perfect subjunctive form of ‘hablar’. This is used to talk about wishes or hypothetical situations in the past. Si hayas hablado con ella, todo sería más fácil.

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHaya habladoI have spoken
Hayas habladoYou have spoken
Él / Ella
Usted
Haya habladoHe/She has spoken
You (formal) has spoken
NosotrosHayamos habladoWe have spoken
VosotrosHayáis habladoYou have spoken
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Hayan habladoThey have spoken
You (plural) have spoken

Imperfect subjunctive

We use the imperfect subjunctive of ‘hablar’ to talk about past wishes, requests or hypothetical situations. For example, mi papá me pidió que hablara contigo. 

In Spanish, the imperfect subjunctive has two conjugation models:

Latin American Spanish version

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHablaraI spoke
HablarasYou spoke
Él / Ella
Usted
HablaraHe/She spoke
You (formal) spoke
NosotrosHabláramosWe spoke
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
HablaranThey spoke
You (plural) spoke

Note: The table above doesn’t include the conjugation for vosotros because this pronoun is not used in Latin American Spanish.

Castilian Spanish version

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHablaseI spoke
HablasesYou spoke
Él / Ella
Usted
HablaseHe/She spoke
You (formal) spoke
NosotrosHablásemosWe spoke
VosotrosHablaseisYou spoke
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Hablasen
They spoke
You (plural) spoke

Past perfect subjunctive

The past perfect subjunctive of ‘hablar’ is used to talk about hypothetical situations in the past. In other words, things that can no longer happen because their time has passed. For example si hubiera hablado con ella…(If I had spoken to her).

PersonConjugationTranslation
YoHubiera habladoI had spoken
Hubieras habladoYou had spoken
Él / Ella
Usted
Hubiera habladoHe/She had spoken
You (formal) had spoken
NosotrosHubiéramos habladoWe had spoken
VosotrosHubierais habladoYou had spoken
Ellos / Ellas
Ustedes
Hubieran habladoThey had spoken
You (plural) had spoken

Hablar Imperative Conjugations

The imperative mood is used to tell people what to do (affirmative commands) or what not to do (negative commands).

Affirmative commands

The affirmative imperative of ‘hablar’ is used to tell people how to speak or to whom to talk. For example: hablen más fuerte, por favor.

PersonConjugationTranslation
HablaSpeak
UstedHableSpeak
VosotrosHabladSpeak
UstedesHablenSpeak

Negative commands

Notice that the negative imperative of ‘hablar’ uses the same conjugations as the present subjunctive. These negative commands can be used to order people not to speak with someone. No hables con extraños.

PersonConjugationTranslation
No hablesDon’t speak
UstedNo hableDon’t speak
VosotrosNo habléisDon’t speak
UstedesNo hablenDon’t speak

Meanings of Hablar & Examples

Below, you’ll find some example sentences using ‘hablar’ in Spanish. These examples will help you understand how to apply all the key conjugations as well as the meanings that you just learned.

Hablar means ‘to speak’ or ‘to talk’. As a result, it’s used to:

Use #1: Talk about the languages someone speaks

[‘Hablar’ conjugated] + [language]

Mi vecina no habla inglés.
My neighbor doesn’t speak English.

¿Recuerdas que Tom hablaba español muy bien?
Do you remember that Tom spoke Spanish very well?

Use #2: Refer to chats, talks, and conversations

[‘Hablar’ conjugated] + [preposition] + [person]

Ayer hablé con Norma.
I talked to Norma yesterday.

Habré hablado con Daniel antes del fin de semana.
I will have spoken to Daniel before the weekend.

[Indirect object pronoun] + [‘hablar’ conjugated]

¡Te estoy hablando!
I am talking to you!

Vanessa no le habla a Chris.
Vanessa doesn’t speak to Chris.

Download Hablar Conjugation Tables & Uses Cheat sheets

I’ve created a PDF for you to download containing all of the conjugation tables, verb characteristics, and uses so you can study it at your own pace!

Practice Quiz: Hablar Conjugation

Practice your conjugation skills for hablar by taking our quiz!

Daniela Sanchez

¡Hola! Soy Daniela Sanchez, I've been studying Spanish professionally as well as teaching it in Mexico and online for over 10 years. I’ve taught Spanish to a wide array of foreigners from many backgrounds. Over the years, I've made it my mission to work hard on refining many challenging to understand grammar topics to make my students' learning experiences easier, faster and more enjoyable. Read More About Me

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