Conjugating the Spanish Verb Tocar (to Play an Instrument/Touch)

Spanish verbs fall into different groups, and each group is conjugated a little differently. If you’re going to master Spanish verbs like tocar, you need to be able to identify which group a verb belongs to: regular (follows regular conjugation rules for -ar, -er, and -ir verbs), stem-changing (morphs depending on how you use it in a sentence), spelling-changing (has consonant-spelling changes in some forms to follow pronunciation rules), or reflexive (reflects the action back on the subject of the sentence).

Tocar (toh-kahr) (to play an instrument/touch) is a (mostly) regular -ar verb, so its conjugation is pretty straightforward. Here it is in the present tense:

Check out these examples:

• ¿Tocan ellos la guitarra? (Do they play guitar?)

• Sí. Y la tocan muy bien. (Yes. And they play it very well.)

Need to know how to conjugate tocar in another tense? The following tables show you the preterit, imperfect, and future forms.

Note that the c changes to a qu in the yo form to keep the proper pronunciation; otherwise, everything is business as usual. The following examples show you the preterit at work:

• ¿Tocó tu hermano en la fiesta? (Did you brother play at the party?)

• Sí. Pero tocó solo por media hora. (Yes. But he only played for half an hour.)

Here are some examples of the imperfect tense:

• ¿Tocaba tu hermana el acordión? (Did your sister used to play accordion?)

• No. Ella tocaba el piano. (No. She used to play the piano.)

Take a look at the future tense in these examples:

• ¿Tocarás la guitarra esta noche? (Will you play the guitar tonight?)

• Si. Tocaré la guitarra con mis amigos. (Yes. I will play the guitar with my friends.)