The Royal Spanish Academy's Dictionary of the Spanish Language lists 25 different meanings for the Spanish verb pegar, whose English translations range from "to stick" to "to hit"! Although we won't cover all of them, today's lesson will touch on many of the most common ones, backed by lots of examples from the Yabla Spanish video library. Are you ready?!

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1. To paste, glue, or stick on

The Spanish verb pegar is often used to describe attaching one thing to another. While this could involve some substance like glue or paste, in other cases, it might simply entail "sticking" one thing onto another via another means, like sewing (as in the example pegar un bóton, or "sew on a button"). Let's take a look at a couple more examples:

2. To stick to or burn 

Similarly, the reflexive form of pegar, pegarse, is used to talk about things that "stick to" other things and might even be translated as "to burn" or "stick to the pan" in the context of cooking.

Y queremos que la harina no esté muy seca y no muy mojada para que no se pegue a las manos

And, we want for the flour to not be very dry and not very moist so that it doesn't stick to one's hands

Captions 43-44, Dany Arepas - Part 1

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Bueno, entonces vemos que esto se está empezando a pegar al fondo. 

Well, so we see that this is starting to stick to the bottom.

Caption 1, Cocinando con Miguelito Pollo sudado - Part 2

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3. To hit, beat, strike, or smack 

In contrast to the former meanings, the Spanish verb pegar can also mean to "hit" someone, as in physically striking them:

Ella era muy amorosa, ella nunca... nunca me pegó, ni una palmada ni nada. 

She was very loving. She never... never hit me, not a spank or anything.

Caption 2, La Sub30 Familias - Part 11

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4. To give/strike (with certain nouns)

The verb pegar often appears with specific nouns like tiro (shot), bofetón (slap), patada (kick), etc., to talk about specific types of "striking." For example, you might hear that a soccer player le pegó una patada fuerte a la pelota ("gave the ball a good kick") or that someone le pegó un bofetón ("slapped him" or "gave him a slap"). Let's see an example with un tiro:

5. To strike a spot intensely

The verb pegar in Spanish might be employed to talk about sun, light, or even wind that falls upon (or is particularly frequent in) a particular surface or area:

The verb pegar in Spanish can entail "pulling" something "up" to something else or "moving (it) closer." For example, you might say: "Pegué la cama a la pared" (I pulled up the bed up to the wall). Let's see one more example:

Puedes pegar un poco el brazo hacia ti.

You can bring your arm a bit closer to you.

Caption 21, Bienestar con Elizabeth Activar las articulaciones

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8. To touch 

9. To match

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Slangy Meanings of the Spanish Verb Pegar

In addition to its more traditional uses, the verb pegar can be found in lots of idiomatic expressions and may be used differently in different countries and regions. In the Dominican Republic, for example, it is common to use the Spanish verb pegar to talk about actions that began suddenly, as in the case of "Pegó a correr" (He took off running). In other regions, you might hear expressions like "Me pegó la depresión" (I got depressed) to give us a sense that the speaker was "stricken" by depression, while "Me pegué una siesta" is another way to say "I took a nap." 

While the less textbook meanings of the verb pegar can seem endless, here are a smattering of examples whose meanings feel like logical extensions of some of the more traditional definitions we covered:

Era lo que yo había aprendido y entonces, eh, me pegué con ellos

It was what I had learned and so, um, I hooked up with them

Captions 28-29, Willy Entrevista - Part 2

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hoy le pego a ese duraznito de Amalia Durango, ¿oyó?

today I'll hit it with that peach Amalia Durango, you hear?

Caption 11, Confidencial: El rey de la estafa Capítulo 4 - Part 9

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Yo sólo quiero pegar en la radio 

I just want to catch on on the radio

Caption 1, Bacilos Mi Primer Millón

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Welcome to the second part of this lesson where we touch on all the different Spanish verb tenses! So... how many tenses in Spanish did we say there were? Sixteen! In the first part, we covered the ten "official" tenses of the indicative mood, which deals more with concrete facts, in addition to some "bonus" (non-official) tenses. Now, we'll move on to the other two Spanish moods: the subjunctive, where we will cover tenses eleven through sixteen of the Spanish verb paradigm, and the imperative. If you didn't already, we definitely recommend checking out Part 1 of this lesson. 

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The Subjunctive Tenses

While the indicative mood deals with facts, the subjunctive mood in Spanish, in a nutshell, deals with more abstract notions like wishes, desires, emotions, opinions, and more, which require a whole different set of tenses in Spanish. Although it would be impossible to delve too deeply into the multipronged usage of the subjunctive Spanish mood, we will try to illustrate several cases in which you might come across it. Let's get started!

11. Present Subjunctive (Presente del subjuntivo)

The present subjunctive is the subjunctive equivalent of the simple present tense. Let's take a look at an example from the Yabla Spanish library: 

Note that the reason the subjunctive form is employed here (we can tell it is subjunctive due to its conjugation, hable, which differs from its indicative form, habla) is because the sentence conveys that we want (queremos) for someone not to talk to us in a particular way, which doesn't mean that that person will actually respect our desire. Let's take a look at one more example: 

Here, the word mejor (better) tips us off that the subjunctive form (hablemos instead of hablamos) is in order due to the expression of someone's opinion about what should happen, which doesn't necessarily mean that it will. 

12. Imperfect Subjunctive (Imperfecto de subjuntivo)

The imperfect subjunctive is the past equivalent of the present subjunctive. We see in the following example that the verb hablar has been conjugated in the imperfect subjunctive (habláramos) instead of in the indicative (hablábamos) due to the expression of desire, once again with the verb querer:

No, no te dije que quería hablar con vos, quería que habláramos los dos. 

No, I didn't tell you that I wanted to talk to you; I wanted for us to talk, the two [of us].

Caption 46, Muñeca Brava 43 La reunión - Part 6

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Another very common use of the imperfect subjunctive is to talk about hypothetical situations. In this case, the imperfect subjunctive is often incorporated into a "si (if) clause" in conjunction with the conditional tense to communicate that "if" something were the case, then something else "would" happen, as in the following clip:

The hypothetical situation the teacher is going for here is: Si hablara ruso, viviría en Rusia (If I spoke Russian, I'd live in Russia). To learn more about this type of construction, we highly recommend the entire series of which this video is a part. 

13. Future Subjunctive (Futuro (simple) de subjuntivo)

We definitely couldn't come up with any examples of the future subjunctive tense in our Yabla Spanish library because this tense is all but obsolete and is almost never even taught in modern Spanish. For that reason, you may not recognize it due to its different and little-seen conjugations, although you may occasionally come across it in legal documents or literature. We came up with this example:

El que hablare fuerte se echará de lo biblioteca. 

Whoever talks loudly will be thrown out of the library. 

The future subjunctive could conceivably be used here because the sentence refers to "whoever," rather than known individuals, as well as alluding to a possible future event. However, in modern Spanish, this very same idea would be conveyed with the present subjunctive:

El que hable fuerte se echará de lo biblioteca. 

Whoever talks loudly will be thrown out of the library. 

14. Present Perfect Subjunctive (Pretérito perfecto de subjuntivo)

The present perfect subjunctive is the equivalent of the present perfect indicative in situations that require the subjunctive, and the verb haber is thus conjugated in its subjunctive form. That said, we'll take this opportunity to mention another case that requires subjunctive: when expressing that something will happen "when" something else happens that hasn't yet, as in the following example:

Cuando se hayan hablado, se van a entender mejor.

When they've talked to each other, they are going to understand each other better. 

And, here's an additional example of the present perfect subjunctive from our Spanish video library with different verbs:

Espero que os haya gustado este vídeo sobre esta maravillosa planta y hayáis aprendido algo nuevo. 

I hope you've liked this video about this wonderful plant and have learned something new.

Captions 80-81, Fermín La plumeria - Part 1

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15. Pluperfect Subjunctive (Pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo)

The pluperfect subjunctive is the subjunctive equivalent of the pluperfect tense and is also used to talk about hypothetical situations. It is formed with the pluperfect form of haber plus the participle, and, like the imperfect subjunctive, it is often used in conjunction with the conditional or conditional perfect to describe what "would have" happened if something else "had been" done. Let's see an example:

Si yo hubiera hablado con mi jefe antes, habría evitado cualquier malentendido. 

If I had spoken with my boss previously, I would have avoided any misunderstanding.

Let's look an additional example of the pluperfect subjunctive tense, which does not include the conditional:

Es como si nunca hubiéramos hablado. 

It's as if we had never talked.

Caption 28, Los Años Maravillosos Capítulo 8 - Part 6

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The Spanish phrase como si (as if) quite often precedes verbs in the pluperfect subjunctive tense. 

16. Future Perfect Subjunctive (Futuro compuesto de subjuntivo)

Like the future subjunctive, the future perfect subjunctive is rarely encountered and might only be employed in literary or legal contexts to talk about what will happen in the future if a hypothetical situation "has not" yet occurred. It involves the future subjunctive form of the verb haber plus the participle, as follows:

Si el demandante todavía no hubiere hablado ante el tribunal para la fecha especificada, se desestimará su caso. 

If the plaintiff still hasn't spoken before the court by the specified date, his case will be dismissed. 

However, the present perfect subjunctive would take the place of the future perfect subjunctive in order to say this today:

Si el demandante todavía no haya hablado ante el tribunal para la fecha especificada, se desestimará su caso. 

If the plaintiff still hasn't spoken before the court by the specified date, his case will be dismissed. 

Since different verb conjugations are rarely required in English to talk about emotions, desires, or hypotheticals, the subjunctive mood can initially feel quite confusing for English speakers, and we hope that this lesson has this shed some light on some of the possible subjunctive scenarios in Spanish. For more information about the subjunctive in Spanish, the following link with take you to several additional lessons on different aspects of this topic. 

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The Imperative "Tenses"

Let's conclude our rundown of all Spanish tenses by talking about the "bonus" tenses in the imperative mood (modo imperativo), which are not included in the official classification of the different tenses in Spanish. Also called commands, these Spanish verb tenses are those that tell someone to do something, and they fall into several categories:

1. Commands with tú (informal "you") :

Habla con la gente de laboratorio.

Talk to the people from the lab.

Caption 36, Confidencial: Asesino al Volante Capítulo 1 - Part 11

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2. Negative commands with tú:

A ver. Sebas, mi amor, no le hables así a tu papá.

Let's see. Sebas, my love, don't talk to your dad like that.

Caption 30, La Familia Cheveroni Capítulo 1 - Part 2

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3. Commands with vos (informal "you" in certain regions):

por favor hablá con Andrea; necesito encontrar a mi nieto. 

please talk to Andrea; I need to find my grandson.

Caption 59, Muñeca Brava 48 - Soluciones - Part 9

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4. (Negative or positive) commands with usted (formal "you"):

Hable más despacio.

"Hable más despacio" [Speak more slowly].

Caption 40, Carlos explica El modo imperativo 2: Irregulares, Usted + plurales

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5. (Negative or positive) commands with ustedes (plural "you"):

Pues no me hablen de costumbre porque luego en vez de ganar, pierdo.

Well don't talk to me about habits because then instead of earning, I lose.

Caption 7, La Banda Chilanguense El habla de México - Part 3

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6. Commands with vosotros/as (informal plural "you"):

Con vosotros o vosotras: Hablad más despacio.

With "vosotros" or "vosotras" ["you" plural informal masculine/feminine]: "Hablad más despacio" [Talk more slowly].

Caption 25, Carlos explica El modo imperativo 1: Tú + vos

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7. Negative commands with vosotros/as:

No nos habléis de esa forma.

Don't speak to us in that way. 

8. (Negative or positive) commands with nosotros/as (we): 

Hablemos de otra palabra.

Let's talk about another word.

Caption 19, Carlos comenta Confidencial - Jerga típica colombiana

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While we won't get into the norms for conjugating all of these types of commands with -ar, -er, and -ir verbs, we recommend Yabla's four-part video series entitled El modo imperativo (The Imperative Mode), beginning here, which explores this topic. 

And that wraps up our lesson on all of the verb tenses in Spanish. We hope you've enjoyed it (and learned a lot)! And don't forget to leave us your suggestions and comments. 

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