Spanish Conjugation - Understanding The Basics

A verb is a word that denotes an action or, as I was told at school

, a 'doing' word. And all verbs are conjugated to a degree, the conjugation of verbs is needed in all languages to help identify who is performing a task or an action and when; Spanish conjugation is no different.

In Spanish there are regular and irregular verbs.

Regular verbs are called so because they follow one of three Spanish conjugation patterns and irregular verbs are called irregular because, well...they don't!

Both regular and irregular Spanish verbs have three specific groups and these are commonly referred to as, -ar verbs; -ir verbs and -er verbs. These groups are so called because ALL Spanish verbs will use one of these three endings, irrespective whether they are regular or irregular verbs (although reflexive verbs give the impression they end in -se, but that's for another day!)

Each of the three regular verb groups has a specific set of endings or conjugations that all other regular verbs of that group follow:

Spanish conjugation group '-ar' verbs:

hablar (to speak)

habl-o - I speak; habl-as - you speak (singular, familiar); habl-a - he/she/it speaks and you speak (singular, polite; habl-amos - we speak; habl-ais( the second a requires an accent) - you speak (plural, familiar); habl-an - they, you speak(plural, polite)

You will notice from this example that the 'habl' of 'hablar' is used in each Spanish conjugation. This is the case with all regular Spanish verbs.

The part of the verb that precedes the ending of ar, er or ir is commonly known as the 'stem', and as mentioned, the stem is used in full in the Spanish conjugation of all regular verbs in the present tense.

The various endings also change for -er and -ir verb groups in the present tense; as shown below:

'-er' verbs:

Beber (to drink)

beb-o - I drink; beb-es - you drink (singular, familiar); beb-e - he/she/it drinks or you drink (singular, polite); beb-emos - we drink; beb-eis (accent on 2nd e) - you drink (plural, familiar); beb-en - they, you drink (plural, polite)

and; '-ir' verbs:

vivir (to live)

viv-o - I live; viv-es - you live (singular, familiar); viv-e - he/she/it lives or you live(singular, polite); viv-imos - we live; viv-is - you live (plural, familiar)(accent on the 2nd i); viv-en - they, you live (plural, polite).

This brief but precise explanation of Spanish conjugations covers the present tense conjugations for regular Spanish verbs; an excellent study companion for regular and Irregular Spanish verbs will be needed for a more in depth study of Spanish conjugations.

by: Daniel Major

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