* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download How to conjugate present tense verbs in Spanish
Kannada grammar wikipedia , lookup
Macedonian grammar wikipedia , lookup
English clause syntax wikipedia , lookup
Scottish Gaelic grammar wikipedia , lookup
Proto-Indo-European verbs wikipedia , lookup
Ojibwe grammar wikipedia , lookup
Navajo grammar wikipedia , lookup
Modern Greek grammar wikipedia , lookup
Lithuanian grammar wikipedia , lookup
Malay grammar wikipedia , lookup
Portuguese grammar wikipedia , lookup
Udmurt grammar wikipedia , lookup
Japanese grammar wikipedia , lookup
French grammar wikipedia , lookup
Lexical semantics wikipedia , lookup
Modern Hebrew grammar wikipedia , lookup
Germanic weak verb wikipedia , lookup
Germanic strong verb wikipedia , lookup
Old Irish grammar wikipedia , lookup
Turkish grammar wikipedia , lookup
Old Norse morphology wikipedia , lookup
Ancient Greek verbs wikipedia , lookup
Polish grammar wikipedia , lookup
Ukrainian grammar wikipedia , lookup
Sotho verbs wikipedia , lookup
Russian grammar wikipedia , lookup
Spanish verbs wikipedia , lookup
Spanish pronouns wikipedia , lookup
Georgian grammar wikipedia , lookup
Swedish grammar wikipedia , lookup
Latin syntax wikipedia , lookup
Latin conjugation wikipedia , lookup
Ancient Greek grammar wikipedia , lookup
Yiddish grammar wikipedia , lookup
Pipil grammar wikipedia , lookup
Old English grammar wikipedia , lookup
Serbo-Croatian grammar wikipedia , lookup
German verbs wikipedia , lookup
El presente Conjugation is the joining together of a subject pronoun with a verb. You may not have noticed, but in English we conjugate by making a distinction between “I eat” and “He eats.” The verb changes depending on who the subject is. A better example is the verb “to be,” which conjugates as: “I am,” “you are,” “he is.” In this case, the conjugation is much more noticeable as each pronoun has a distinct verb. While Modern Standard English’s conjugations are subtle, Spanish is much more complex. Remembering our chart of subject pronouns is the first step to learning how to conjugate verbs in Spanish. Person First Singular Yo (I) Plural Nosotros (We, masculine/mixed) Nosotras (We, feminine) Tú (You, informal) Vosotros (You, masculine/mixed) Vosotras (You, feminine) Él (He) Ella (She) Usted (You, formal) Ellos (They, masculine/mixed) Ellas (They feminine) Ustedes (You, formal) Second Third Spanish verbs are learnt in the infinitive. The infinitive is a neutral mood that is expressed in English with the prefix “to.” Examples of English infinitives are “to speak,” “to eat” or “to share.” The infinitive is neutral because it does not specify the verb as the past or future tense, nor does it specify a subject. While there is only one infinitive form in English, Spanish has three categories: –ar infinitives such as bailar (to dance), –er infinitives like comer (to eat) and –ir infinitives like compartir (to share). The way each verb ends will determine how it is conjugated. -ar Verbs Regular verbs generally follow a pattern of conjugation. Once you grasp the rule, you should have no problem conjugating similar verbs of the same category. The first step is to drop the –ar ending and add a unique ending. Here is an example of regular –ar verbs. bailar = to dance Yo bailo (I dance) Tú bailas (You dance) Él/Ella/Usted baila (He dances) Nosotros/Nosotras bailamos (We dance) Vosotros/Vosotras bailáis (You all dance) Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes bailan (They dance) -er Verbs Like –ar verbs, the first step in conjugating an –er verb is to drop the ending and then add the unique ending to signify the person. You’ll notice the conjugation is the same as –ar verbs, except in place of an a, there is an e. comer = to eat, to have lunch Yo como (I eat) Tú comes (You eat) Él/Ella/Usted come (He/She eats) Nosotros/Nosotras comemos (We eat) Vosotros/Vosotras coméis (You all eat) Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes comen (They eat) -ir Verbs The last group, -ir verbs, are conjugated almost the same as –er verbs, but with two exceptions in the nosotros and vosotros conjugation. compartir = to share Yo comparto (I share) Tú compartes (You share) Él/Ella/Usted comparte (He shares) Nosotros/Nosotras compartimos (We share) Vosotros/Vosotras compartís (You all share) Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes comparten (They share) Now that you know how to conjugate present tense verbs in all three categories, you can begin writing sentences in Spanish. Some verbs are slightly irregular and those you will learn separately. Because each verb conjugation is unique, Spanish speakers rarely include the personal pronouns in speech. For example, Hablo español can only mean “I speak Spanish” and nothing else because the ending –o is exclusive to the first person singular, yo. Therefore the personal pronouns are a bit redundant and are only used for emphasis or clarification, for example Él habla español pero ella habla francés (He speaks Spanish, but she speaks French). As beginners to Spanish, it’s okay to form your sentences with pronouns but as you advance, try to lose this habit to sound more like a native speaker!