golpear

Golpear is a Spanish verb that means to strike, hit, or beat, typically by delivering a physical blow with a part of the body or with an object. It can also mean to hit against something, or to cause impact with sound or force. In addition to physical use, golpe can be used in figurative expressions such as a crisis or event that affects something strongly, for example, “la crisis golpeó la economía.”

As a transitive verb, golpear requires a direct object: someone or something is struck. Common uses include golpear a alguien (to hit someone), golpear una pelota (to hit a ball), or golpear una puerta (to strike a door or, in some contexts, to knock). It can also describe striking a surface to produce sound, as in golpear un tambor. The reflexive form, golpearse, means to injure oneself by hitting or by striking against something.

The noun golpe accompanies the verb to describe the act of striking or the blow itself. Phrases such as golpe seco (a sharp, dry blow) and golpe de estado (coup d'état) are widely used. The word also appears in idioms like dar un golpe (to give a blow) or pegar un golpe (to land a hit), though pegar can be used more broadly for hits and in some regions as a synonym of golpe.

Conjugation: golpear is a regular -ar verb. For example, in the present tense: golpeo, golpeas, golpea, golpeamos, golpeáis, golpean. Other common forms include golpeé, golpeaste, golpeó in the preterite; golpeaba, golpeabas, golpeaba in the imperfect; and golpeando as the gerund, with golpeado as the past participle.