Balbucear means ‘to stammer/babble’. It is a regular -ar verb: balbuceo (present), balbuceé (preterite), balbuceado (past participle), balbuceando (gerund).
Balbucear in use
Balbuceó una disculpa y salió de la salaHe stammered an apology and left the room
El bebé ya balbucea sus primeras palabrasThe baby is already babbling her first words
Con los nervios, siempre balbuceo un pocoWhen I am nervous, I always stammer a little
On this pageIndicative
Indicative
Statements of fact, certainty and objective reality
Balbucear describes stumbling over words for a moment, or a baby's first sounds. A lasting stammer is tartamudear.
More tenses
The other perfect tenses (haber + past participle) and the past subjunctive
The imperfect subjunctive has two forms: -ra (more common in speech) and -se (more formal; still heard in speech in Spain, mainly written in Latin America). Both are equally correct and interchangeable.
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