navegar
/nah-beh-GAHR/
to sail
Navegar can mean to sail across the water in a boat.
navegar(verb)
to sail
?moving through water in a boat or ship
,to navigate
?directing the course of a ship or aircraft
to pilot
?controlling a vessel
📝 In Action
Me encanta navegar por el mar Caribe.
A1I love to sail through the Caribbean sea.
Los antiguos vikingos sabían navegar usando las estrellas.
B1The ancient Vikings knew how to navigate using the stars.
💡 Grammar Points
The 'G' to 'GU' Spelling Change
In the 'I' form of the simple past (navegué), we add a 'u' after the 'g'. This is just to make sure the 'g' keeps sounding like the 'g' in 'game' instead of changing to an 'h' sound.
❌ Common Pitfalls
Spelling in the Past
Mistake: "yo navegé"
Correction: yo navegué. Without the 'u', the word would sound like 'na-veh-HEH' instead of 'na-veh-GEH'.
⭐ Usage Tips
Prepositions matter
Use 'por' when you want to say you are sailing 'through' or 'around' a place, like 'por el Mediterráneo'.
Navegar is also used to describe surfing or browsing the internet.
📝 In Action
Paso horas navegando por la red.
A1I spend hours surfing the web.
Es peligroso navegar por sitios web desconocidos.
A2It is dangerous to browse unknown websites.
⭐ Usage Tips
Internet Lingo
Just like in English we 'surf' waves and 'surf' the web, Spanish uses 'navegar' (to sail/navigate) for both water and the digital world.
🔄 Conjugations
subjunctive
imperfect
present
indicative
preterite
imperfect
present
✏️ Quick Practice
💡 Quick Quiz: navegar
Question 1 of 2
How would you say 'I surfed the internet' in the past?
📚 More Resources
Frequently Asked Questions
Is 'navegar' irregular?
Technically no, it follows standard -ar patterns, but it has a small spelling change (g to gu) in some forms to preserve the pronunciation.
Can I use 'navegar' for flying a plane?
Yes, it can be used for the act of navigating a course in the air, though 'pilotar' or 'volar' are more common for the physical act of flying.