El periodista habla con mi familia.

The journalist talks with my family.

Breakdown of El periodista habla con mi familia.

• con: with
• mi: my
• la familia: the family
• hablar: to talk
• el periodista: the journalist

Questions & Answers about El periodista habla con mi familia.

Why is it el periodista and not la periodista? Does periodista change for gender?

Periodista is one of those nouns that usually ends in -ista and has the same form for masculine and feminine.

• el periodista = the (male) journalist
• la periodista = the (female) journalist

What shows the gender is the article (el / la) and sometimes adjectives that agree with it:

• El periodista famoso (famous male journalist)
• La periodista famosa (famous female journalist)

Why does a masculine word (el periodista) end in -a? I thought -a was feminine.

Many professions and occupations ending in -ista are invariable in form and can be masculine or feminine:

• el artista / la artista (artist)
• el dentista / la dentista (dentist)
• el futbolista / la futbolista (soccer player)
• el periodista / la periodista (journalist)

The ending -ista does not indicate gender. The article (el / la) and any adjectives tell you whether the person is male or female.

Why is it habla and not hablo, hablan, or hablar?

Habla is the third person singular, present tense form of hablar (to speak).

Conjugation (present indicative of hablar):

• yo hablo – I speak
• tú hablas – you speak (informal)
• él / ella / usted habla – he / she / you (formal) speak
• nosotros hablamos – we speak
• ellos / ellas / ustedes hablan – they / you all speak

The subject of the sentence is el periodista (he), so you must use habla.

Is con always translated as with? Why habla con mi familia and not something else?

In this sentence, con does mean with.

For hablar, common patterns are:

• hablar con alguien = to speak with someone
• hablar a / hablarle a alguien = to speak to someone (emphasis on direction)
• hablar de algo = to speak about something

In most everyday situations, hablar con is the most natural choice when you mean “talk with/to someone” in a conversational sense.

Why is it mi familia and not la familia or mis familia?

• mi = my (for singular nouns)
• mis = my (for plural nouns)

Familia is singular in Spanish, so you use mi familia (my family), not mis familia.

You would use mis with plural nouns:

• mis amigos (my friends)
• mis familias (my families – possible, but rare in meaning)

You could also say la familia (the family) if you are not specifying whose family:

• El periodista habla con la familia (The journalist speaks with the family).

If familia is many people, why doesn’t the verb agree with it? Why not hablan?

The verb agrees with the subject, not with the object.

In this sentence:

• Subject: el periodista (singular)
• Verb: habla (third person singular)
• Object of the preposition: mi familia

So the verb must be singular: El periodista habla…

If mi familia were the subject, then the verb would also be singular in standard Spanish:

• Mi familia habla con el periodista. (My family speaks with the journalist.)

Even though familia refers to several people, grammatically it is one unit, so it takes a singular verb.

Could you say está hablando instead of habla? What is the difference?

Yes, you could say:

• El periodista está hablando con mi familia.

Difference:

• habla – simple present; in Spanish it can mean:

  • he speaks with my family (in general, habitually), or
  • he is speaking with my family (right now, in context).

• está hablando – present progressive; focuses more clearly on an action in progress right now:

  • he is speaking / is currently talking with my family.

Spanish uses the simple present more often than English does for actions happening now, so habla can often translate as is speaking.

Why do we need el before periodista, but there is no article before mi familia?

El is the definite article (the). In Spanish, singular countable nouns usually need an article (or something that plays the same role).

• el periodista = the journalist

For mi familia, the possessive mi already determines the noun, so you do not add an article:

• mi familia = my family (no extra article)

You normally do not say la mi familia in modern Spanish. It sounds archaic or poetic.

Can I change the word order, like El periodista con mi familia habla?

Spanish word order is more flexible than English, but not all orders sound natural.

The standard and best-sounding order here is:

• El periodista habla con mi familia. (Subject – Verb – Rest)

You might occasionally see variations in poetry or very stylized speech, but El periodista con mi familia habla sounds strange or overly dramatic in normal conversation. Stick to:

• El periodista habla con mi familia.

Could I say El periodista les habla a mi familia? What is the difference from habla con mi familia?

Yes, you can say:

• El periodista le habla a mi familia. (more common in most of Latin America)
• El periodista les habla a mi familia. (also heard; there are regional variations)

Differences in nuance:

• hablar con = to talk with (emphasizes a conversation, more two‑way)
• hablar a / hablarle a = to talk to (emphasizes speaking to them; it can sound more like addressing or telling them something)

So:

• El periodista habla con mi familia.
  Suggests a conversation, maybe an interview or a chat.

• El periodista le habla a mi familia.
  Focuses more on the journalist addressing or telling something to the family.

Is there any difference between periodista and reportero in Latin America?

Both exist, but there is a nuance:

• periodista: general word for journalist. Can work in TV, radio, print, online, investigative work, etc.
• reportero / reportera: often used more for a field reporter or someone who does reports from the scene, especially in TV or radio news.

In many contexts they overlap, and periodista is the broader, more standard term.