subject: How To Learn Spanish Verbs [print this page] There's a rumor going around that Spanish verbs are tough and complicated. You may even be afraid to try to learn them. There is no need to worry, Spanish verbs could be learned with just just a little attention.
One thing individuals do not understand is that English verbs are, in many ways, similar to Spanish verbs. For instance, you'll often hear the complaint that it is hard to learn Spanish verbs because you have to conjugate them. Conjugating verbs simply means matching up the proper verb form for each "person," like I, you, he, she, we, or they.
What individuals do not seem to understand is that we conjugate English words as well. So, for example, we say "I have," but we say "she has." When you learn Spanish, you'll conjugate verbs in the same way.
The only difference is that you have diverse forms for more of the "persons." When you learn Spanish verbs, you will learn a special form each for "I", "you", "we", "they", and another form for "he", "she", or "it." One more thing that makes it easy to learn Spanish verbs is the fact that these verb forms are simply based on mostly standard endings. Once you know the endings, you can apply them to the infinitives.
Infinitives are the most fundamental forms of the verbs. All verbs in English have an infinitive form, but most individuals aren't conscious of it. The English infinitive begins with the word "to," as in "to have." Spanish infinitives are single words, such as "tener," meaning "to have" also. If you learn Spanish infinitives, you'll have a good start when you learn Spanish verbs.
As you learn Spanish, you will discover that a few of the words are different. Just as in English, you will find irregular verbs. The English verb "to be" is conjugated "I am," "you are," "she is," "we are," and "they are." Because these forms aren't the usual infinitive with an ending, they constitute an irregular verb.
When you learn Spanish, you'll learn verbs that follow the same patterns. Using the same example, for the Spanish verb "ser," the forms are "yo soy," "tu eres," "ella es," "nosotros estamos," and "ellos estan." These are likewise irregular verb forms.
The final set of forms you'll need to learn Spanish are the tenses. In English, the past tense for "jump" is "jumped". This is really a regular past tense. An example of a verb with an irregular past tense is "go." Its past tense is "went."
As you learn Spanish, you will find out how to make the endings for each tense: present, past, past perfect, and so on. You will also learn Spanish irregular endings for verbs in the different tenses. With all this knowledge under your belt, together with info on the other parts of speech, you should be able to carry on an intelligent conversation.
Definitely, there's much to understand as you learn Spanish verbs. There are many words and verb forms to remember. However, if you remember that English has several of the same structures, you will find that it's not so confusing.
