Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): En el club también hablamos de nuestras aficiones y del torneo de fútbol del barrio. - In the club we also talk about our hobbies and about the neighborhood soccer tournament.

In your sentence, we are already at the club, not going there, so en el club is correct.
Al club would be wrong in this sentence because nothing is moving toward the club.

Why is también placed before hablamos? Could it go somewhere else?

También means “also / too.”

The most neutral place is before the verb:

En el club también hablamos… – At the club we also talk…

Other possible positions:

También en el club hablamos…
– Emphasizes “also in the club” (maybe in other places too).
En el club hablamos también de nuestras aficiones…
– Slightly emphasizes that this is an additional topic we talk about.

All are grammatically possible, but:

En el club también hablamos… is the most natural and common word order here.

How do we know hablamos is present tense “we talk” and not past “we talked”?

In Spanish, hablamos can be:

Present (nosotros): hablamos = we talk / we are talking
Preterite (nosotros): hablamos = we talked

The form is the same in -ar verbs.

So in a single sentence with no context, it is ambiguous:

En el club también hablamos… could be “we talk” or “we talked.”

We usually rely on:

Time expressions:
- Ayer en el club también hablamos… – Yesterday at the club we also talked… (clearly past)
- Siempre en el club también hablamos… – We always talk… (habitual, present)
Context of the conversation: narrative in past vs describing a routine.

If the provided meaning is “we talk,” then the teacher/context decided it is present tense here.

Why don’t we say nosotros before hablamos? When would we add it?

Spanish usually omits subject pronouns (yo, tú, nosotros, etc.) because the verb ending already shows who is doing the action.

Hablamos alone already means “we talk.”
Nosotros hablamos is grammatical, but less necessary.

We add nosotros when we want:

Emphasis or contrast
- Nosotros hablamos de nuestras aficiones, ellos no.
  We talk about our hobbies, they don’t.
Clarity if context is confusing
- In complex sentences where it’s not obvious who the subject is.

In your sentence, hablamos is clear enough, so nosotros is normally dropped:

En el club también hablamos de nuestras aficiones…

Why do we need de after hablamos? How is hablar de different from hablar sobre and hablar con?

English uses “talk about”, but Spanish usually uses hablar de:

hablar de algo = to talk about something
- Hablamos de nuestras aficiones. – We talk about our hobbies.

Other related structures:

hablar sobre algo
- Also means “talk about”, often a bit more like “regarding / on the topic of”.
- Hablamos sobre nuestras aficiones. – We talk about our hobbies.
  In most everyday contexts, de and sobre are interchangeable here.
hablar con alguien
- Means “to talk with/to someone.”
- Hablamos con nuestros amigos. – We talk with our friends.

In your sentence we need de because we talk about topics:

hablamos de nuestras aficiones y del torneo…

Why is it de nuestras aficiones and not something like de los nuestros aficiones?

Several points of grammar are happening here:

Possessive adjective
- nuestras = our (feminine plural)
- It is a possessive adjective, not a pronoun, so it goes before the noun:
  - nuestras aficiones – our hobbies
Agreement
- aficiones is feminine plural (la afición, las aficiones).
- So the possessive must also be feminine plural: nuestras, not nuestros.
No article with a possessive
In Spanish, with mi/tu/su/nuestro…, you normally don’t add another article:
- nuestras aficiones (correct)
- las nuestras aficiones (incorrect/unnatural)

So the correct phrase is:

de nuestras aficiones – about our hobbies

What exactly does aficiones mean in Latin American Spanish? Is pasatiempos more common?

Afición / aficiones can mean:

hobby / pastime / interest (the relevant meaning here)
- Tengo muchas aficiones. – I have many hobbies.
supporters/fans of a team (especially in sports, more common in Spain)
- La afición del equipo está contenta. – The team’s fans are happy.

In Latin America:

aficiones is understood as “hobbies/interests”, especially in somewhat formal or neutral speech.
pasatiempos (pastimes) and hobbies (borrowed from English, pronounced “jóbis”) are also used.

So:

nuestras aficiones ≈ nuestros pasatiempos / nuestros intereses
All are understandable; nuance varies slightly by country and register.

Why is it del torneo instead of de el torneo?

In Spanish, de + el (the masculine singular article) contracts to del:

de + el torneo → del torneo
- Hablamos del torneo. – We talk about the tournament.

This contraction is mandatory when el is the article (the).

We do not contract when él is the pronoun “he/him”:

Hablamos de él. – We talk about him. (no contraction)
Hablamos del profesor. – We talk about the teacher. (contraction, because el is an article)

In your sentence, el is the article for torneo, so de el torneo must become del torneo.

Why do we repeat de in y del torneo instead of saying de nuestras aficiones y el torneo?

In Spanish, when one verb takes a preposition (here hablar de), that preposition normally applies to each coordinated element in a list of objects:

Correct:

Hablamos de nuestras aficiones y del torneo de fútbol del barrio.

Here de applies to:

(de) nuestras aficiones
(de)l torneo…

If you say:

Hablamos de nuestras aficiones y el torneo…

it sounds like:

We talk about our hobbies and (we talk about) the tournament?
Grammatically it’s felt as unbalanced and unnatural; the preposition appears to govern only the first noun.

So, natural Spanish usually:

Repeats the preposition or uses a form that clearly includes both:
- Hablamos de nuestras aficiones y del torneo… (best option here)

How is torneo de fútbol del barrio structured grammatically? What does del barrio modify?

Breakdown:

torneo – tournament
de fútbol – of soccer / soccer tournament
del barrio – of the neighborhood / neighborhood’s

Structure:

torneo de fútbol = soccer tournament
torneo de fútbol del barrio = the neighborhood’s soccer tournament or the local neighborhood soccer tournament

Del barrio modifies torneo, not fútbol:

It’s the tournament that is of the neighborhood (local event), not “the neighborhood’s soccer.”

So the whole phrase means:

el torneo de fútbol del barrio – the neighborhood soccer tournament (the local soccer tournament organized in/for the neighborhood).

Why is there an accent on fútbol, and does it always mean “soccer”?

Spanish accent rules:

fu-tbol (two syllables) would naturally stress the last syllable (-bol).
But the word is stressed on the first syllable: FÚT-bol.

Because the natural stress position and the actual stress differ, Spanish marks this with a written accent:

fútbol

Meaning:

In almost all of Latin America and Spain, fútbol = soccer (association football).
fútbol americano = American football.

So yes, fútbol by itself practically always refers to soccer in Latin American Spanish.

What does barrio mean in Latin American Spanish, and are there regional differences?

Barrio generally means “neighborhood” or “district.”

In Latin America:

Often a part of a city with its own local identity and community.
el barrio in your sentence is just “the neighborhood where we live / where the club is” – neutral, not negative.

Regional notes:

In some countries/contexts, barrio can carry social/working‑class or sometimes rough-area connotations, but not always.
Some regions use additional local terms:
- Mexico: colonia is very common for a neighborhood.
- More generally: vecindario also means neighborhood, but is less tied to identity than barrio.

Here, el torneo de fútbol del barrio simply means:

the soccer tournament organized in/for our neighborhood.