En resumen (the short version)
- Learn each activity with its verb, not as a single word: hacer senderismo, not just senderismo.
- Spanish splits English "play" in three: jugar a for games and sports, tocar for instruments, and hacer for most other things.
- Add how often you do it (suelo…, de vez en cuando) and how you feel about it (me relaja, me encanta), and you've got a proper answer.
✌🏼 ¡Hola aventurero!
You bake on Sundays. You do yoga twice a week. You've got a balcony full of plants you talk to more than you'd like to admit 🪴
And then someone asks you about your free time in Spanish, and all of that comes out as… Me gusta… el yoga?
Tranquilo, it's a very common problem. In this post I'll give you the free time activities in Spanish you actually need, the verbs that go with them, and how to turn them into an answer that sounds like you.
How people will ask you
First, the questions. The word hobby exists in Spanish, but people don't use it much in a normal chat. You're more likely to hear one of these:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| ¿A qué dedicas tu tiempo libre? | What do you spend your free time doing? |
| ¿Qué haces cuando no trabajas? | What do you do when you're not working? |
| ¿Qué haces para desconectar? | What do you do to switch off? |
| ¿Haces algún deporte? | Do you do any sport? |
| ¿Tienes algún plan para el finde? | Have you got any plans for the weekend? |
Desconectar literally means "to disconnect", and people in Spain use it all the time for switching off after work.
Learn the activity with its verb
Teacher bit 🤓 When you learn a free time word, always learn the verb that goes with it. Senderismo on its own is a noun you can't do much with. Hacer senderismo is something you can say straight away.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| hacer senderismo | to go hiking |
| hacer repostería | to bake (cakes, biscuits…) |
| hacer fotos | to take photos |
| cuidar las plantas | to look after your plants |
| montar en bici | to ride a bike |
| nadar | to swim |
| ver series | to watch series |
| quedar con amigos | to meet up with friends |
| salir de tapas | to go out for tapas |
Hacer fotos is the usual way in Spain. In Latin America you'll hear sacar fotos or tomar fotos more.
In your notes, write the verb in one colour and the activity in another: hacer senderismo, montar en bici. After a while, your brain stops seeing them as two separate things.
Jugar, tocar or hacer?
English uses "play" for football, chess and the piano. Spanish doesn't. And when you know why, it's much easier to remember.
- Jugar comes from the Latin for "to joke" or "to play around". So it's for games and sports: things with rules and a winner.
- Tocar means "to touch". You touch an instrument to make it sound, so you tocas el piano.
- Hacer means "to do". It covers most activities that aren't a game or an instrument.
| Verb | Example | In English |
|---|---|---|
| jugar a (games, sports) | Juego al baloncesto los jueves. | I play basketball on Thursdays. |
| jugar a (video games) | Mi hijo juega a videojuegos todo el día. | My son plays video games all day. |
| tocar (instruments) | Toco el violín desde pequeña. | I've played the violin since I was little. |
| tocar (instruments) | Mi novio toca la batería. | My boyfriend plays the drums. |
| hacer (everything else) | Hago yoga dos veces por semana. | I do yoga twice a week. |
In Spain, jugar nearly always has an a after it, and a + el becomes al: jugar al baloncesto, jugar al ajedrez. You'll hear jugar baloncesto without the al in parts of Latin America, but in Spain the al is standard.
Saying how often
"I do yoga" is fine. "I do yoga twice a week" is better, because it gives the other person something to react to.
| Spanish | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| todos los días | every day | Nado todos los días. |
| dos veces por semana | twice a week | Hago yoga dos veces por semana. |
| a menudo | often | Quedo con amigos a menudo. |
| de vez en cuando | now and then | De vez en cuando hago repostería. |
| casi nunca | hardly ever | Casi nunca veo la tele. |
| nunca | never | No juego nunca a videojuegos. |
Nunca can go before the verb (Nunca juego) or after it with no in front (No juego nunca). Spanish is fine with the "double negative" 😉
And here's a verb English doesn't have: soler. It means "to usually do something", and you put an infinitive after it:
- Suelo hacer senderismo los domingos. (I usually go hiking on Sundays.)
- ¿Qué sueles hacer los fines de semana? (What do you usually do at weekends?)
It's suuuper useful here, because most hobbies are things you usually do.
Saying how you feel about it
Now add one more piece: why you like it.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Me encanta. | I love it. |
| Me relaja. | It relaxes me. |
| Me ayuda a desconectar. | It helps me switch off. |
| Me engancha. | I get hooked on it. |
| Me aburre un poco. | It bores me a bit. |
These all work like gustar: the activity does something to you. So it's Me relaja cocinar, not Yo relajo cocinar. If that pattern still feels backwards, read how gustar works in Spanish.
Quedar con alguien means to meet up with someone: Quedo con mis amigos los viernes. Quedarse means to stay: Me quedo en casa. Mix them up and your Friday plans change completely 😄
A chat about free time
Here's how it can sound. Two colleagues at the coffee machine on a Friday:
See how B sends the question back with ¿Y tú? There's more on that in why your Spanish conversations die after two lines.
Your free time in Spanish this week
Write your three activities, with their verbs
Pick three things you really do in your free time and write each one with its verb: hago yoga, toco el piano, quedo con amigos. Not sure of the verb? Look it up now, so it's ready.
Add how often and how you feel
Turn each one into a full sentence with a frequency word and a feeling: Hago yoga dos veces por semana porque me ayuda a desconectar. Say all three out loud.
Ask someone else
Next time you chat in Spanish, ask ¿Qué sueles hacer en tu tiempo libre? and steal any new verb you hear.
On Monday, someone will probably ask what you did at the weekend. That's the past version of all this, and it's in how to talk about your weekend in Spanish.
Recap ✨
- People rarely ask about your "hobbies". Listen for ¿A qué dedicas tu tiempo libre? and ¿Qué haces para desconectar?
- Learn each activity with its verb: hacer senderismo, montar en bici, quedar con amigos.
- Jugar a is for games and sports, tocar for instruments, hacer for most other things.
- Say how often with dos veces por semana, de vez en cuando or suelo + infinitive.
- Add how you feel with me relaja, me encanta or me ayuda a desconectar.
If you'd like free time and the other everyday topics laid out in order, with games, speaking prompts and cheat sheets, that's what my Roadmaps are for 🗺️
Now I want to know 👀 What do you do to desconectar? Cuéntame in the comments, with the verb!
Lucía ✨
Lucía · Linguist, translator, Spanish teacher and author of the Visual Spanish Grammar Book.
Come and learn Spanish with me and other aventureros like yourself at skool.com/learnspanish 🎉