Conjugating the Spanish Verb Bailar (to Dance)

Spanish verbs fall into different groups, and each group is conjugated a little differently. If you’re going to master Spanish verbs like bailar, 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).

Bailar (bvahee-lahr) (to dance) is a regular -ar verb, so it’s pretty easy to conjugate. Here it is in the present tense:

The following examples show you bailar in action:

• Ellos bailan en la fiesta. (They are dancing at the party.)

• Yo bailo todos los días. (I dance every day.)

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

Here are some examples of the preterit tense:

• Bailé un tanto con mi hermana. (I danced a little with my sister.)

• Bailaron durante toda la noche. (They dance during the entire night.)

You use the imperfect tense like this:

• ¿Bailabas mucho? (Did you used to dance a lot?)

• Ellos siempre bailaban los viernes por la noche. (They always danced on Friday evening.)

The following samples put the future tense to work:

• Raúl y Susana bailarán. (Raúl and Susana will dance.)

• Rafael bailará en la boda este verano. (Rafael will dance at the wedding this summer.)