🏃 Action Verbs - Verbos de acción
Beginner Spanish · Action verbs
Action Verbs in Spanish
Action verbs help you describe movement and everyday physical actions. With a few useful verbs, you can talk about walking, running, carrying things, opening doors, moving objects, and getting up or sitting down.
Your next small win: recognize common action verbs, use levantarse and sentarse, describe simple physical actions, and ask useful questions about activities.
Start with movement
Movement Verbs
These verbs describe common ways people move or carry something.
To run
To walk
To jump
To carry
To move
To drive
I like to run in the park.
She walks to work every day.
I am going to move the table.
She carries a large backpack.
Use three movement verbs
Say “to run, to walk, and to carry” in Spanish.
Correr, caminar y llevar.
Interact with things around you
Everyday Physical Actions
These verbs are useful for doors, objects, furniture, and other everyday situations.
To open
To close
To touch
To push
To grab / take hold of
Please open the door.
Please close the door.
I am going to move the table.
Useful commands: abre and cierra are informal commands for one person. Adding por favor makes the request more polite.
Open and close
Ask someone politely to open the door, then to close it.
Por favor, abre la puerta.
Por favor, cierra la puerta.
Notice the -se ending
Levantarse and Sentarse
Some Spanish verbs appear with -se in the infinitive. These are reflexive verbs.
To get up
To sit down
I get up in the morning.
I sit down here.
Watch the form: the infinitives are levantarse and sentarse, but with yo you can say me levanto and me siento.
Two reflexive actions
Say “I get up in the morning” and “I sit down here.”
Me levanto por la mañana.
Me siento aquí.
Put the actions into conversation
Useful Action Phrases
Do you like running?
Do you know how to swim?
Do you drive every day?
Do you want to walk with me?
Useful pattern: use saber + infinitive for knowing how to do something: ¿Sabes nadar?
At the park
Do you want to walk with me?
Sure. Afterward we can run a little.
Do you also exercise here?
Yes, almost every day.
More activity verbs
To play
To swim
To dance
To throw
To exercise
Sports vocabulary and training routines are covered in more detail in the Sports and Fitness lessons. Here, these verbs are mainly for action-verb recognition.
Invite someone to move
Ask someone to walk with you, then say you can run a little afterward.
¿Quieres caminar conmigo?
Después podemos correr un poco.
Your turn · 8 quick questions
Practice: Action Verbs
Choose the answer that best fits each situation. Focus on movement, everyday physical actions, reflexive verbs, and useful action phrases.
Practice complete
You can use common action verbs in Spanish.
A few action verbs to revisit
One last step: describe four actions without choices.
Say that you like running in the park, ask someone to open the door, say that you are going to move the table, and ask someone to walk with you.
Me gusta correr en el parque.
Por favor, abre la puerta.
Voy a mover la mesa.
¿Quieres caminar conmigo?
You want to invite someone to walk with you. What do you ask?
- ¿Quieres caminar conmigo?
- ¿Quieres correr conmigo?
- ¿Quieres conducir conmigo?
- ¿Quieres bailar conmigo?
Caminar means “to walk,” and conmigo means “with me.”
¿Quieres caminar conmigo?
You enjoy running in the park. Which sentence fits?
- Me gusta correr en el parque.
- Me gusta caminar en el parque.
- Me gusta nadar en el parque.
- Me gusta conducir en el parque.
Correr means “to run,” so Me gusta correr en el parque means “I like to run in the park.”
Me gusta correr en el parque.
You want someone to open the door. What do you say?
- Por favor, abre la puerta.
- Por favor, cierra la puerta.
- Por favor, mueve la puerta.
- Por favor, lleva la puerta.
Abrir means “to open,” and abre is the informal command used here.
Por favor, abre la puerta.
Which verb means “to get up”?
- levantarse
- sentarse
- caminar
- saltar
Levantarse means “to get up.” Sentarse means “to sit down.”
levantarse = to get up
You want to say that you are going to move the table. Which sentence fits?
- Voy a mover la mesa.
- Voy a llevar la mesa.
- Voy a tocar la mesa.
- Voy a abrir la mesa.
Mover means “to move,” so Voy a mover la mesa means “I am going to move the table.”
Voy a mover la mesa.
You want to ask whether someone knows how to swim. What do you ask?
- ¿Sabes nadar?
- ¿Quieres nadar?
- ¿Te gusta nadar?
- ¿Vas a nadar?
Saber + infinitive can express knowing how to do something, so ¿Sabes nadar? means “Do you know how to swim?”
¿Sabes nadar?
Your friend is carrying a large backpack. Which sentence fits?
- Ella lleva una mochila grande.
- Ella mueve una mochila grande.
- Ella empuja una mochila grande.
- Ella abre una mochila grande.
Llevar can mean “to carry,” so Ella lleva una mochila grande describes carrying the backpack.
Ella lleva una mochila grande.
You want to say “I sit down here.” Which sentence fits?
- Me siento aquí.
- Me levanto aquí.
- Camino aquí.
- Salto aquí.
Sentarse means “to sit down.” With yo, one useful form is me siento.
Me siento aquí.