Hablar Conjugation Spanish With Different Meanings (Examples Included)

¿Bueno?
(Hello?)

Buenas tardes, ¿tengo el gusto con la señorita Paulísima?
(Good afternoon, am I speaking with miss Paulisima?)

¿Quién habla?
(Who’s calling?)

Le estoy hablando de parte  de HSBC…
(I’m calling on behalf of HSBC…)

¡Ay perdón, señorita! No puedo hablar ahorita, estoy muy ocupada.
(Oh, I’m sorry miss! I can’t talk at this moment, I’m very busy.)

Did you notice that ¿Quién habla? (Who’s calling?) or that no puedo hablar (I can’t talk)

The verb hablar is one of the most used ones in Spanish, it can be tricky because it can translate as talk, speak, discuss or even call as in phone someone.

To make it easier for you to remember, in this lesson we will teach you the hablar conjugation Spanish it using chunks instead of a conjugation table.

1. Chunks with hablar

Ni hablar. (No way Lit.: No talking.)

”Ni hablar” is a common interjection in Spanish.

O sea.. ¿él te invitó a salir a ti, pero quiere que tú pagues la mitad?
(So… he asked you out, but he wants you to pay half?)

Sí, bueno, no lo dijo abiertamente, pero lo implicó. ¿Tú irías?
(Yes, well, he didn’t say it openly, but he implied it. Would you go?)

¡Ni hablar!
(No way!)

Necesitamos hablar. (We need to talk.)

This Spanish phrase has the same weight as its English counterpart. Nobody wants to receive a text like this:

Hola, necesitamos hablar.
(Hello, we need to talk.)

¡Ay no, qué feo! ¡Mi ansiedad señores, mi ansiedad! (Oh no, how awful! My anxiety gentleman, my anxiety!)

Another chunk with the same meaning is: Tenemos que hablar. (We have to talk.)

No podía ni hablar. (I couldn’t even talk.)

¿Cómo te fue en tu cita?
(How did your date go?)

¡Increíble! Pero al principio estaba tan nerviosa que no podía ni hablar.
(Amazing! But at the beginning I was so nervous I couldn’t even talk.)

In these four chunks “hablar” (talk) is in its base form.

It’s not conjugated.

Learn them because you’ll hear them a lot.

This is a great time for you to subscribe to the Spring Spanish channel, in case you haven’t done it.

2. Hablar as speak

Hablar means “speak” when it’s used in the general sense of articulating sounds or words.

Cuando no me cae bien la gente, casi no hablo.
(When I don’t like people that much, I barely speak.)

Notice here, speak is conjugated in the first person.

Yo hablo. (I speak.)

Hablar also has the sense of “speak” when we use it to refer to the ability of speaking a certain language.

Paulísima, ¿tú también eres políglota, como los fundadores de Spring Languages?
(Paulisima, are you also a polyglot like the founders of Spring Languages?)

No, yo solamente hablo español, inglés y un poquito de francés.
(No, I only speak English, Spanish, and a little bit of French.)

Again, hablo is conjugated for the person yo (I).

Let’s see some examples for the person you.

Tú hablas. (You speak.)

Caroline, ¿cómo es que hablas español tan bien?
(Caroline, how come you speak Spanish so well?)

Es que practico todos lo días con mi mejor amiga y además soy miembro del Inner Circle de Spring Spanish.
(I practice everyday with my best friend, and also I’m a member of the Inner Circle of Spring Spanish.)

Are you a member of the Inner Circle? If not, join now!

3. Hablar as talk

We translate hablar as talk when we refer to a conversation, when it’s implied that another person is involved.

We’re going to see two examples with hablar for the third-person singular.

I hate grammatical terms, and I know my Spanish students do too. At Spring Languages, we don’t rely on grammar, instead we keep it simple and we use chunks, phrases that are commonly used by native speakers.

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For our first example, let’s use a very Mexican expression. Talk your ears off (Lit.: Talk even through the elbows.

Me cayó super bien tu sobrina Paulina, nunca se le acaba el tema de conversación.
(I really liked your niece Paulina, she never runs out of conversation.)

¡Sí! ¡Habla hasta por los codos!
(Yes! She talks her ears off.)

Notice that “habla hasta por lo codos.” Ella habla. She speaks.
Now let’s do with “él habla”.

¿Tu esposo es muy cercano a su familia?
(Is you husband very close to his family?)

Sí, bastante, con decirte que habla con sus papás todos los días.
(Yes, a lot, to the point where he speaks to his parents every day.)

¿Todos los días? El mío no les habla más que en sus cumpleaños.
(Everyday? Mine doesn’t talk to them except on their birthdays.)

¿No es mexicano, verdad?
(He is not Mexican, right?)

No, es danés.
(No, he’s Danish.)

No wonder!

Mexicans and Latin Americans in general are quite family-oriented.

¡Continuemos! (Let’s continue!)

Now let’s look at examples with “we” and you.  We talk. You all talk.

Ya me dijeron que te vieron en la plaza hablando con un chico.
(The’ve told me that they saw you talking to a guy at the mall.)

¡Sh! ¡Sh! Ahí viene mi mamá. Luego hablamos.
(Sh! Sh! Here comes my mom. We’ll talk later.)

Las veo muy sospechosas. ¿De qué hablan?
(You guys look very suspicious. What are you talking about?

De nada.
(Nothing.)

The conjugation for “ellos” (they) is the same as for Ustedes hablan. Ellos hablan. (You all talk. They talk.)

¿Cómo se llevan tus papás después de que se divorciaron?
(How do your parents get along after their divorce?)

Mal. No se hablan.
(Bad. They don’t talk to each other.)

¿Cómo son tus compañeros de clase?
(How are your classmates?)

No sé, no me hablan, y estoy casi segura de que hablan mal de mi a mis espaldas.
(I don’t know, they don’t talk to me, and I’m pretty sure they talk bad about me behind my back.)

I’ve seen the following line in many small restaurants:

No hay WiFi, hablen entre ustedes.
(No WiFi, talk to each other.)

4. Hablar as discuss

¿Algo más en que le pueda servir?
(Anything else I can do for you?)

Sí, me gustaría cancelar mi otra línea telefónica.
(Yes, I would like to cancel my other phone line.)

Eso tendría que hablarlo directamente con el gerente de la sucursal donde contrató la línea.
(That you would need to discuss directly with the manager of the branch where you contracted the line.)

Another example:

El tema de los derechos reproductivos lo tenemos que hablar desde un punto de vista científico
(The subject of reproductive right needs to be discussed from a scientific point of view.)

5. Hablar as call

Sometimes “hablar” is better translated as “call” as in phoning someone.

¿Ya te habló el chico con el que saliste?
(Has the guy you went out with called you already?)

No, todavía no, pero estoy segura de que me va a hablar.
(No, not yet but I’m sure he will call me.)

Or like the example I use at the beginning:

¿Quién habla?
(Who’s speaking? / Who’s calling?)

6. Impersonal use of hablar conjugation Spanish

I’m sure you’ve seen this one:

Se habla Español.
(Spanish is spoken.)

And what about this:

No se habla de Bruno, no, no, no. No se habla de Bruno.
(We don’t talk about Bruno, no, no. We don’t talk about Bruno.)

En una reunión mexicana, no se habla de política ni de religión.
(In a Mexican gathering, we don’t talk about politics or religion.)

What else is considered taboo? Find out in this video:

7. Hablar Conjugation Spanish table in present simple

I’m only including this for those who need the visual summary to learn better. Please don’t learn it by heart!

Learn the chunks instead.