Trabajar is a regular -ar verb in Spanish.
Practice trabajar free →Trabajar means 'to work', and it is a fully regular -ar verb that anchors the jobs, ambitions and work-experience topics. Trabajo en una tienda (I work in a shop), trabajé el verano pasado (I worked last summer). Because it is regular, it is an ideal verb for drilling the -ar endings cleanly. A useful structure is trabajar de + job (trabajo de camarero, I work as a waiter), which reads more naturally than a word-for-word translation. As with other -ar verbs, mind the preterite accents (trabajé, trabajó) — small marks that examiners notice.
Quick facts
Trabajar (to work) is a regular -ar verb.
Real sentences across different tenses — the kind of thing you'd actually say or write.
Trabajo en una tienda (I work in a shop).
Trabajar de + job: trabajo de camarero (I work as a waiter).
Trabajé el verano pasado (I worked last summer).
Trabajar duro (to work hard).
Fixed expressions worth knowing — they come up in listening, reading and writing tasks.
Trabajar is fully regular, so it's an ideal verb for drilling the -ar endings. Watch the preterite accents (trabajé, trabajó) and remember trabajar de means 'to work as': trabajo de camarero = I work as a waiter.
trabajar 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 trabajar, 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 trabajar now →Three questions, no account needed. Type the form, then press Enter or tap Check.
yo: trabajo, tú: trabajas, él: trabaja, nosotros: trabajamos, vosotros: trabajáis, ellos: trabajan
The past participle is trabajado (he trabajado) and the gerund is trabajando (estoy trabajando).
Trabajar 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.