subject: How To Conjugate In Spanish [print this page] The conjugation of Spanish verbs has always been looked upon as one of the most difficult areas of learning Spanish, especially when compared to verbs in English which are relatively easy in comparison. Unfortunately, irrespective of the difficulty, learning how to conjugate in Spanish is unavoidable but it can be made easier and much more enjoyable.
The easiest way to explain conjugation in Spanish is to use a Spanish verb in its simplest form and in its simplest tense, these would be a regular verb and the present tense. There is one other thing...there are three different verb groups in Spanish and each has it's own slightly different forms.
In Spanish, every verb will have one of three endings, these are -ar, -er and -ir. These endings are added onto, what is commonly referred to as, the 'stem' of the verb.
The stem is the equivalent of the verb in our English verb infinitive and the ending is, what many refer to as, the preceding 'to', eg; 'to have' would be 'tener', ten- being the stem and therefore the actual verb, and -er basically means 'to'.
To conjugate in Spanish you would normally drop the endings and replace with new endings, although there are tenses when this is not the case, in particular the future and the conditional. Here are examples of a regular verb from each of the three verb groups conjugated in the present tense.
Hablar - to speak
I speak - hablo
You speak - hablas
he/she speaks - habla
we speak - hablamos
you all speak - hablas
they speak - hablan
Vivir - to live
I live - vivo
You live - vives
he/she lives - vive
we live - vivimos
you all live - vivs
they live - viven
Comer - to eat
I eat - como
You eat - comes
he/she eats - come
we eat - comemos
you all eat - comis
they eat - comen
As stated this is the most basic way to conjugate in Spanish. There are many irregular verbs that do not follow these patterns and many different tenses that all have completely different endings.
In short, conjugation is a massive learning curve...However, there is a way to make learning Spanish conjugation a lot easier and more enjoyable and, at the same time, increase the speed at which you learn Spanish!
If you are struggling with learning how to conjugate verbs a Spanish verb conjugation software program is the answer.
