Spanish talks about hobbies with the noun afición (hobby) and the verb gustar (to like), which runs backwards from English: instead of "I like football," Spanish says me gusta el fútbol, literally "football pleases me." Vocabcord's A1 Spanish set carries ten everyday leisure words built around that idea: afición itself, sports like fútbol, baloncesto, and tenis, and the rest of a day off, from fiesta to vacaciones, viaje, and cumpleaños. Here is the full set, with audio, and the two verbs that turn all of them into sentences.
The hobby and free-time words
This is the leisure slice of Vocabcord's A1 Spanish set: what you do for fun, and the two verbs that talk about doing it. Tap the play button on any row to hear it.
| Spanish | English | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| gustar | like | I like ice cream. |
| jugar | play | Children play in the park. |
| afición | hobby | What's your hobby? |
| deporte | sport | What sport do you play? |
| juego | game | A board game. |
| fútbol | football | We play football. |
| baloncesto | basketball | He loves basketball. |
| tenis | tennis | I play tennis on Sundays. |
| fiesta | party | A birthday party. |
| vacaciones | vacation | I'm on vacation. |
| viaje | trip | A short trip. |
| cumpleaños | birthday | Happy birthday! |
The verb that runs backwards: gustar
Gustar does not work like the English verb to like. English puts the person first: I like ice cream. Spanish puts the thing first and the person second, closer to ice cream pleases me: me gusta el helado. Swap the pronoun and the person changes: te gusta is you like, le gusta is he or she likes. The frame stretches to any hobby on this page: me gusta el fútbol (I like football), te gusta la fiesta (you like the party). One grammar quirk worth knowing early: with a plural noun the verb goes plural too, so it is me gustan los deportes (I like sports), not me gusta.
Playing sports: jugar al fútbol, baloncesto, and tenis
To play a sport, Spanish pairs jugar (to play) with a, and a el always contracts to al: jugar al fútbol, jugar al tenis. The corpus's own football example shows the everyday plural form of that pattern, jugamos al fútbol (we play football), and to ask someone what sport they play, the corpus carries ¿qué deporte practicas?, built on the verb practicar rather than jugar. Fútbol is football in British English and soccer in American English, and the corpus's one Spanish sentence, jugamos al fútbol, translates correctly either way. Baloncesto (basketball) and tenis (tennis) need no dialect note; both stay the same word on either side of the Atlantic.
Games, parties, and vacation (or holiday)
Juego is the broader word for game, a board game included: un juego de mesa. Fiesta covers any party, and the corpus's own example lines it up with the last word on this list: una fiesta de cumpleaños, a birthday party, for cumpleaños (birthday), a word that never changes form even in the plural. Vacaciones is always plural in Spanish, even for a single trip, and it is the word behind both dialects of English: estoy de vacaciones means I'm on vacation in American English and I'm on holiday in British English, the same Spanish sentence either way. Viaje (trip) is the shorter, one-off cousin of vacaciones: a viaje corto is a short trip, whether or not it counts as a proper holiday.
Inside the corpus: leisure grows from ten words to a hedonista
The ten leisure-theme words above, afición included, are the start of a much longer list. Across Vocabcord's Spanish corpus, the leisure theme runs to 41 phrases in total: these 10 at A1, a further 23 at A2 (concerts, art exhibitions, camping trips, and the musical instruments people practice on holiday, like guitarra and piano), and a final 8 at C2, where the register jumps sharply. The C2 leisure words are not more sports or more games; they are the people who take a hobby too far: aficionado (a devoted fan, the same root as afición), diletante (dilettante, someone who dabbles), virtuoso, and hedonista (hedonistic). A word that starts as a beginner's noun for hobby at A1 ends the ladder as the root of a C2 word for the person obsessed with one.
Learn them between charges, not study sessions
Twelve words are easy to read once and let slip by next weekend, which defeats the point for vocabulary about free time. Vocabcord skips the study session: plug in your phone to charge and one Spanish phrase plays out loud, translation on screen, timed to come back right before it would have faded. Get Vocabcord on the App Store, and afición, fútbol, and vacaciones settle in a charge at a time.
Common questions
How do you say hobby in Spanish?
Afición. To ask someone about theirs, the corpus's own phrase is ¿cuál es tu afición? (what's your hobby?).
What is your hobby in Spanish?
¿Cuál es tu afición? is the direct question. You can answer with mi afición es... (my hobby is...) followed by the activity, or with gustar: me gusta el fútbol (I like football).
How do you say I like in Spanish?
Me gusta for a singular thing you like (me gusta el helado, I like ice cream) and me gustan for more than one (me gustan los deportes, I like sports). The verb agrees with the thing liked; the person stays fixed as me, te, or le.
Is fútbol soccer or football in Spanish?
Both. Fútbol is the same Spanish word whether you call the sport football (British English) or soccer (American English); the corpus's example sentence, jugamos al fútbol (we play football), is correct either way.
How do you say vacation in Spanish?
Vacaciones, always plural even for one trip: estoy de vacaciones means I'm on vacation in American English or I'm on holiday in British English.
What sport do you play in Spanish?
¿Qué deporte practicas?, built on the verb practicar. To answer, name the sport with jugar a: juego al tenis los domingos (I play tennis on Sundays).
