Bailar means 'to dance', and it is a textbook regular -ar verb at home in the hobbies, music and going-out topics. Me gusta bailar (I like dancing), bailamos toda la noche (we danced all night). Because it is perfectly regular, it is a clean model of the -ar pattern as well as being genuinely useful for free-time answers. It pairs naturally with cantar ('to sing') and escuchar ('to listen') when describing music and parties. As always with -ar verbs, the preterite accents (bailé, bailó) carry meaning and marks, so keep them in place.
Quick facts
Bailar (to dance) is a regular -ar verb.
Real sentences across different tenses — the kind of thing you'd actually say or write.
Me gusta bailar (I like dancing).
Bailamos en la fiesta (we danced at the party).
A clean -ar verb for the pattern.
Pairs with cantar and escuchar música.
Fixed expressions worth knowing — they come up in listening, reading and writing tasks.
Idiomatic expressions
bailar is a regular -ar verb — it follows the standard -ar pattern in every tense. That makes it a good one to drill: if you know bailar, you know the template for all regular -ar verbs.
Type conjugations from memory and get instant feedback. That's how you actually build the automatic recall the exam needs — not from reading tables.
Practice bailar now →Three questions, no account needed. Type the form, then press Enter or tap Check.
yo: bailo, tú: bailas, él: baila, nosotros: bailamos, vosotros: bailáis, ellos: bailan
The past participle is bailado (he bailado) and the gerund is bailando (estoy bailando).
Verbs that are easy to confuse with bailar or that behave like it.
Bailar is on the AQA, Edexcel and Eduqas GCSE Spanish vocabulary lists. Compare the exam boards.
Written by Daniel Holmes for GCSE & A-Level Spanish students.