Beginners series 1
Beginners 37: Hablar, Decir, and Contar
Learn how to use these common, often confused verbs
Rob
Inglés
Transcript
Hola, amigos. Welcome to the Spanish Obsessed Beginners podcast. My name is Rob, and in this episode we'll be looking at the differences between three common Spanish verbs: hablar, decir and contar. So these verbs all mean to speak or to talk in English, but they have some key differences in how they are used in Spanish.
TranslationBefore we get into that, I want to tell you about a course we've just released called Foundations One. It's an interactive video course which takes you out of beginner's zone through a structured, logical syllabus. If you enjoy these beginner podcasts, then you'll definitely love Foundations. Head to Spanishobsessed.com/foundations-1 to find out more.
TranslationOkay. On with the episode. As native English speakers, we often just use say or tell as a kind of catchall verb for speaking. Spanish, however, needs more specificity, and that's why these verbs can be tough for us. Knowing whether to use hablar, decir, or contar requires us to know more about how these verbs work. So let's dive in.
TranslationWe'll start with hablar. Hablar means to speak or to talk in the most general sense. For example, hablo espanol. I speak Spanish. Ella está hablando por teléfono. Ella está hablando por teléfono. She is talking on the phone. Notice with that last one. It's por teléfono, not en teléfono. Spanish speakers habla por teléfono. Now, I'm guessing you're familiar with the conjugations of hablar. It's a standard regular verb, so we're not going to cover those conjugations here. Hablar can be used to say you speak a language overall or that you're talking about any topic. It's kind of the go to cover all verb for speak or talk, in a general sense, I think it's the easiest one to really understand for us.
TranslationNow next up, we have decir, a little bit more tricky. Decir. Or if you're in Spain, decir means to say or to tell. So subtle difference here. We're going to start with the conjugations and then we'll come on to the usage and meaning. So the conjugations are be honest, as a beginner they're a bit of a nightmare. Decir is a stem changing verb and it's also a go verb, but it's also irregular in the past. We're not going to cover everything, but give you an idea of how to conjugate this verb. So here's the present tense conjugations.
TranslationSo notice here with these present tense conjugations that the stem changes from the letter E to the letter I so the sound e to the sound i. So we get dices, not deces. And we get dice not deci. And for the yo form, the I form, this is also got the go at the end. So it's digo. Digo. However, the nosotros form keeps the letter E or the sound E in the stem. So we get decimos. Decimos. Now, as a rule for stem changing verbs, the nosotros form tends to keep the same original stem. Decimos not dicimos.
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