Hobbies in Spanish

The long-awaited summer is finally here! It’s time to go out – or stay in – and invest some precious time in our favorite activities! Our hobbies and what we do in our free time is such an important part of who we are, so let’s learn to share more about ourselves in Spanish! If you haven’t watched our video Talking about Hobbies in Spanish, go check it out!

Our Favorite Hobbies in Spanish

As you may have guessed correctly, there is a long list of vocabulary here! We all like different things and that’s what makes us unique. There are also activities that we do with others that bring us closer together. Let’s get started! Look at the hobby vocabulary below and find the five things that you like to do the most in your free time. 

Now that you’ve found the five things you prefer to do in your free time, let me ask you:

• ¿Qué haces en tu tiempo libre? What do you do in your free time?
• ¿Qué te gusta hacer en tu tiempo libre? What do you like to do in your free time?
• ¿Cuál es tu pasatiempo favorito? What are your favorite hobbies?

Keep reading to find out how to answer these questions!

Building Sentences

Now that we know the names of different hobbies in Spanish, let’s learn how we can use this knowledge in sentences! There are several ways to say that we like – or dislike – something. Today, we’ll have a look at:

interesar (to be interested in), gustar (to like), and encantar (to love)

We conjugate these verbs a little differently than normal verbs. Why? Oh, the joys of language learning! 

As you can see in the table above, the indirect object pronouns (me, te, le, nos, les) are the ones that change to match the subject in the sentence, not the verb. This affects the sentence we form as a whole. Indirect object pronouns are words that tell us to whom or for whom something is being done. It can be a person, an animal, or a thing. In the sentence ‘I give her the book.’, her is the indirect object pronoun because her is receiving the book!

The normal sentence pattern in Spanish is subject + conjugated verb + object. However, in the case of these three verbs, things change a little bit. The sentence pattern that we use is:

indirect object pronoun + conjugated verb + object

Let’s look at some examples:

The best way to remember this sentence construction is to think of the fact that while in English we say I like something. In Spanish, it’s a lot more like Something pleases me. Always keep in mind that language learning is not just translating words, but learning a whole new perspective on communication – with new words!

In this case, Me gusta leer is the equivalent to Reading pleases me. And a word-by-word translation of Me gusta leer is Me pleases to read. A more literal translation, that would make a little more sense is Me it pleases to read. 

Another very important factor to remember when you’re building these sentences is that sometimes you’ll use the article, and sometimes you won’t. Thankfully, there is a rule here:

Let’s build some more sentences together so that it becomes clear!

And what about the things we don’t like? Well, that one’s easy for a change! You simply add a no before the indirect object pronoun. Let’s practice with some examples:

Takeaway 

Uff! This was a lot to take in, but don’t worry! The more you practice your favorite hobbies in Spanish, the easier it will get. And don’t forget to book your FREE class today so we can practice together!