Home/Verbs/llamar
A1-ar verbregular

llamar

To call someone — and, reflexively, the verb behind every Spanish introduction.

Quick answer

llamar · llamo, llamas, llama, llamamos, llamáis, llaman

to call, to phone. Fully regular, so the endings carry over to every other -ar verb.

Conjugation

PersonPresentPreteriteImperfectFuture
yollamollaméllamaballamaré
túllamasllamastellamabasllamarás
él / ella / ustedllamallamóllamaballamará
nosotrosllamamosllamamosllamábamosllamaremos
vosotrosllamáisllamasteisllamabaisllamaréis
ellos / ustedesllamanllamaronllamabanllamarán

Orange marks a form you cannot guess from the rules.

Non-finiteForm
gerundllamando
past participlellamado
imperative (tú)llama
subjunctive (yo)llame

Which form to learn first

me llamo. Literally “I call myself”, and it is how you give your name.

Where you will actually use it

Me llamo Ana.My name is Ana.
¿Cómo te llamas?What’s your name?
Te llamo mañana.I’ll call you tomorrow.
Llámame luego.Call me later.
Llamé al médico.I called the doctor.
Alguien llama a la puerta.Someone’s knocking at the door.

Typical mistakes

Mi nombre es Ana — grammatical, but…

Me llamo Ana.

Spanish introduces itself reflexively. me llamo is what people actually say.

Yo llamo Ana.

Me llamo Ana.

Without the me it means you are calling a person named Ana.

Llamé el médico.

Llamé al médico.

A person as object takes a, and a + el becomes al.

Check yourself

¿Cómo ___?

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