Tocar: Full Conjugation | Spanish (Latin America) Grammar

Tocar means "to touch" in the most literal sense, but it's also the verb Spanish uses for playing a musical instrument (you "touch" the guitar, not "play" it). It also appears in idiomatic phrases like me toca a mí ("it's my turn").

Tocar is a regular -ar verb with the -car spelling change: c → qu before e.

Present Indicative

Subject	Form
yo	toco
tú	tocas
él / ella / usted	toca
nosotros / nosotras	tocamos
ellos / ellas / ustedes	tocan

Toco la guitarra desde los ocho años.

I've played guitar since I was eight.

Preterite

Subject	Form
yo	toqué
tú	tocaste
él / ella / usted	tocó
nosotros / nosotras	tocamos
ellos / ellas / ustedes	tocaron

Toqué el piano en la fiesta.

I played the piano at the party.

Imperfect

Subject	Form
yo	tocaba
tú	tocabas
él / ella / usted	tocaba
nosotros / nosotras	tocábamos
ellos / ellas / ustedes	tocaban

Future

Subject	Form
yo	tocaré
tú	tocarás
él / ella / usted	tocará
nosotros / nosotras	tocaremos
ellos / ellas / ustedes	tocarán

Conditional

Subject	Form
yo	tocaría
tú	tocarías
él / ella / usted	tocaría
nosotros / nosotras	tocaríamos
ellos / ellas / ustedes	tocarían

Present Subjunctive

Subject	Form
yo	toque
tú	toques
él / ella / usted	toque
nosotros / nosotras	toquemos
ellos / ellas / ustedes	toquen

No toques las obras de arte, por favor.

Please don't touch the artworks.

Imperfect Subjunctive (-ra forms)

Subject	Form
yo	tocara
tú	tocaras
él / ella / usted	tocara
nosotros / nosotras	tocáramos
ellos / ellas / ustedes	tocaran

Imperative

Person	Form
tú (affirmative)	toca
tú (negative)	no toques
usted	toque
nosotros	toquemos
ustedes	toquen

Non-Finite Forms

Infinitive: tocar
Gerund: tocando
Past participle: tocado

Common Uses

Tocar has three big clusters of meaning:

Physical touch — touching something with your hands.
Playing a musical instrument — you tocas el violín, not juegas al violín.
Whose turn / what falls to you — me toca, te toca, le toca.

Alguien está tocando la puerta.

Someone is knocking at the door.

Me toca pagar la cuenta.

It's my turn to pay the bill.

¿Sabes tocar algún instrumento?

Do you know how to play any instrument?

💡

Don't use jugar ("to play") for musical instruments — that's only for games and sports. For music, always use tocar.

💡

The construction me toca + infinitive means "it's my turn to..." or "it falls to me to...". It works like gustar: the thing-to-be-done is the grammatical subject, and the person is the indirect object.

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