¡Buenos días! ¿Cómo están Uds. hoy?

Today we are going to learn the several uses of the verb pegar. Pegar is a very common and useful verb in Spanish so let’s get down to work!

Here are some useful collocations and uses of pegar:

The first idea that comes to mind when we talk about pegar is to stick, to glue. Here are some examples:

Le gustaba tanto Justin Bieber que tenía su póster pegado a la pared. [She liked Justin Bieber so much that she had her poster glued to the wall.]
Tengo que pegar un botón a la chaqueta. [I have to sew this button on the jacket.]
Pega esta sofa a la pared. [Put this sofa against the wall.]
No pudo separar las hojas porque se habían pegado. [He couldn’t separate the sheets because they got stuck.]
El arroz se ha pegado a la paellera. [The rice stuck in the paella pan.]

Pegar is also used to say that you hit someone or knock/bang yourself.

Tu mamá te va a pegar si descubre que has hecho eso. [Your mother’s going to hit you if she finds out that you have done this.]
Dejó su marido pues él le estaba pegando fuerto todos los días. [She left her husband because he was hitting her hard every day.]
Me pegué con la mesa. [I knocked myself on the table.]
Al salir del aparcamiento me he pegado contra una farola. [When I left the parking lot I hit a traffic light.]

Pegar has several cool and common collocations:

pegar un susto – to have a fright
pegar un disgusto – to feel disgusted
pegar un salto / un bote – to jump
pegar un grito – to scream
pegar fuego a – to set fire to
pegarse un catarro – to catch a cold
pegarle una bofetada a alguien – to slap someone
pegarle un golpe / una paliza a alguien – to give someone a beating
pegar brincos de alegría – to jump for joy
pegar un repaso (a un capítulo) – to review, look over a chapter

Some more uses of pegar:

Esta camisa pega bien con estos pantalones. [This shirt goes well with these pants.]
El colegio está pegando a mi casa. [The school is really near my house.]
La luz pega en la pared de mi habitación. [The light hits my bedroom wall.]
Estos dos últimos versos no pegan. [These two last verses don’t rhyme.]
Esta música es la que está pegando (fuerte) este verano. [This song is a hit this summer.]
Se me ha pegado esta canción. [I can’t stop singing this song.]
En esta curva me la pegué hace un año con el coche. [I crashed (with the car) at that curve last year.]
Somos tan ingenuos que nos la pegan cada dos por tres. [We are so naive that people deceive us every other minute.]

Want more free resources to learn Spanish? Check out the other goodies we offer to help make your language learning efforts a daily habit.