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- "No, he does not speak Englis…
"No, he does not speak English."
Translation:No, él no habla inglés.
30 Comments
1453
STITCH_rd, 'hablar' is in the verbs natural or infinitive state. You use that when you are talking about the verb but it is not actually being performed. Por ejemplo:
Quiero hablar contigo. = I want to speak with you.
Notice that in this case 'querer' (to want) is the action verb I'm actually doing. I'm wanting to do something. So 'hablar' is not conjugated and translates to 'to speak'. Otro ejemplo:
Me gusta hablar contigo. = I like speaking with you.
Notice again the action verb here is 'gustar' (to like). So again 'hablar' is not conjugated.
In other words, don't conjugate the verb if it is not the action being taken by the Subject. Typically, if you see two verbs in a row only the first will be conjugated. Does that help?
1070
Duolingo tries to teach verb conjugation by letting users absorb it over time. But some people learn it better by directly memorizing conjugation tables.
For the verb "hablar" (to speak), here's how to conjugate it:
I speak - yo hablo
you (informal) speak - tú hablas
he/she/you (formal) speak - él / ella / Usted habla
we speak - nosotros hablamos
you (plural) speak - Ustedes hablan
they speak - ellos/ellas hablan
Notes: (1) this is how you conjugate most verbs ending in -ar
(2) in Spanish, it is permissible to leave off the pronoun if it is already clear in context. Therefore, "I speak Spanish" could be truncated to "hablo español" and "they speak" could be as simple as "hablan espanol."