No Subject Necessary

​In Spanish a strange thing happens-and that is that no subject is necessary.  WHY? Let’s think about this. For example: To Talk = Hablar. In English we say: I talk, you talk, he talks, she talks, we talk, they talk.

So basically the verb itself doesn’t hardly change; it can either be 'talk' or 'talks.' That’s it!

The only thing that tells you WHO is talking is the subject, I , you, we, they, she.

In Spanish each verb changes. Look closely: hablO, hablAS, hablA, hablAMOS, hablAN. Five different versions for five different subjects.

Because the verb itself changes, the subject is optional. Now THAT is a mind bender, when you’re starting to learn Spanish as an English speaker and are totally relient on WHO.

This means I can say either YO hablo.=I speak.  OR just HABLO. =I speak(without the subject)

They mean the EXACT same thing!

But when do we use it?  What's the difference? C’mon now there’s gotta be a difference!

Nope. Basically you can use either. However there are times when you want to confirm WHO.  Like when someone says "habla ingles"…. Then someone else asks WHO?(QUIEN?) They can then confirm "ELLA". (She)

OR if everone in the room speaks only spanish but you want to clarify that SHE speaks English… you could say "ELLA habla ingles". Once you learn this trick, it’s quite fun. You can say a single word: subject-verb combo, and your sentence is complete! Thanks for reading this mini lesson, and have a great weekend!

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