El rey habló con la reina.

Here, el and la are the definite articles, meaning the.

• el rey = the king
• la reina = the queen

In Spanish, articles are used very often with nouns, and they must agree with the noun’s gender and number.

In this sentence, yes, you normally use them. Saying just Rey habló con reina would sound wrong in standard Spanish.

Yes, they are a masculine/feminine pair:

• rey = king
• reina = queen

Spanish nouns have grammatical gender, so:

• masculine nouns usually take el
• feminine nouns usually take la

This pair does not follow the very simple -o / -a pattern, so it is best learned as vocabulary:

• el rey
• la reina

The article helps you remember the gender.

Habló is the preterite form of hablar.

Specifically, it is:

• third person singular
• he/she/it spoke or talked

So El rey habló con la reina means that the action happened as a completed event in the past.

Compare:

• habló = spoke / talked
• hablaba = was speaking / used to speak

The accent mark shows that the stress falls on the last syllable: ha-BLÓ.

It also distinguishes this form from hablo:

• hablo = I speak
• habló = he/she spoke

So the accent is important both for pronunciation and for meaning.

In Spanish, hablar con alguien is very common and can correspond to English talk to or talk with.

So:

• habló con la reina can mean spoke to the queen or talked with the queen

Spanish often uses con where English prefers to.

You may also hear forms like:

• Le habló a la reina = He spoke to the queen
• Habló a la reina = possible, but less natural in many everyday contexts than habló con

Yes, that is grammatically possible.

Spanish often drops subject pronouns and even subject nouns when the meaning is clear from context. Since habló is a third-person singular verb form, Habló con la reina means:

• He spoke with the queen
• She spoke with the queen

The exact subject would depend on context.

Adding El rey makes it explicit that the subject is the king.

This is the most neutral and natural word order:

• subject + verb + complement

So:

• El rey habló con la reina

Spanish word order is more flexible than English, though. You could change it for emphasis or style, but the basic version is the one learners should use first.

For example, Habló con la reina el rey is possible in some contexts, but it sounds marked and is not the normal default order.

The h in Spanish is silent, so habló is pronounced roughly a-BLO or ah-BLO, with the stress on the last syllable.

A few helpful points:

• h = silent
• ó = stress this syllable
• bl is pronounced together, as in English ब्ल? Better approximated as blo

So habló does not sound like English hab-low with a pronounced h. The initial sound is just a vowel.

A simple English-friendly guide is:

• rey ≈ ray
• reina ≈ RAY-na

A couple of details:

• the r in Spanish is not the same as the English r
• at the beginning of a word, r is pronounced more strongly
• ei in reina sounds like the vowel in day or ray

So reina sounds close to RAY-na, not ree-EE-na.

Because in Spanish they are common nouns, not proper nouns.

So you normally write:

• el rey
• la reina

Spanish uses lowercase for titles and roles much more than English does. They are only capitalized in special cases, such as at the beginning of a sentence or in certain official names/styles.

Yes. In many contexts, hablar can be translated as either speak or talk.

So all of these can work depending on context:

• The king spoke with the queen
• The king talked with the queen
• The king spoke to the queen
• The king talked to the queen

The Spanish sentence itself does not force one single English wording.