Mi amigo habla raro a veces.

the friend

Breakdown of Mi amigo habla raro a veces.

• mi: my
• a veces: sometimes
• hablar: to speak

Questions & Answers about Mi amigo habla raro a veces.

Why is there no word for he in the sentence? Why don’t we say Él mi amigo habla raro a veces?

Spanish usually drops subject pronouns (yo, tú, él, etc.) when the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

• Habla is the he/she/usted form of hablar in the present tense.
• From habla, a native speaker already knows it means he/she speaks, so él is normally not needed.

Él mi amigo habla raro a veces is incorrect because you cannot put él directly in front of mi amigo like that. If you really wanted to include él, you could say:

• Él, mi amigo, habla raro a veces. – He, my friend, speaks weirdly sometimes.

…but that has a different structure and is less natural in everyday speech. The normal version is simply:

• Mi amigo habla raro a veces.

What exactly does habla mean here: speaks, talks, or is speaking?