¿Hables español?

Question

I'm reviewing the videos with Paralee and I found this question in lesson 1.5. This lesson deals with regular -AR verb conjugations (only indicative mood this early in the series). Her speech goes like this: "Hablar means to speak and it's a really useful word, especially when you're somewhere where you need to ask if someone speaks your language. ¿Hables español? Wait, wait, we're getting a little ahead of ourselves."

So what exactly is this? If she meant to use hables, this is the second person singular in the subjunctive but what function would the subjunctive have here? I was thinking perhaps it could make the question a bit less direct, something along the lines of "maybe, just possibly, you happen to know a bit of Spanish?" but I can't fit in such a question with the use of the tú form.

Thanks!

Answer 1

At the moment I have only dial-up connection, so I can´t watch the video, but subjunctive is never used to form the two-word question "¿Hablas/habla/hablan español?"

So glad to hear that confirmed! Thank you :) - Manity, Jul 8, 2013

Answer 2

You are correct, it does sound like she says "hables". But I listened to it about 10 times, and I really do think she says "hablas".

But like Julian said, you would never see it used like that, but more along the lines of:

Espero que hables español. - I hope you speak Spanish.

Yes, this makes sense. Thanks a lot to both of you. I'm happy that it's just a tiny slip of the tongue that sounds a bit off, not a fundamental principle I've missed entirely. :) - Manity, Jul 8, 2013