Where To Find Good Support When Studying Spanish Verbs
Why you have to learn spanish verb conjugation. The importance of a good verb conjugation when either speaking, writing or reading is the key to a full understanding and complete communication among 300 million people.
Even though languages were invented or created in a natural way by the people, with the increase in new spanish verbs and slang, a science was invented to study the correct way to speak and do spanish verb. As far as the spanish grammar is concerned, its main function is to express when the action happened. Therefore, the spanish verb maintain their rules whether spoken in Spain, South America or in any other territory where spanish has been extended to. What does change is the vocabulary used to describe our surroundings, but the spanish verb conjugation does not.
How to learn Spanish Verbs
In order to understand how we can use a spanish verb, we have to analyze what a verb expresses. Verbs are conjugated very differently than in English. In English, we have the name or pronoun followed by the verb tense ( except in the past tense) followed by the verb. However, in spanish, these three words or parts are all included in one word. For example, I will eat , which is three words in english, in spanish is comeré – just one word. The spanish verb in infinitive COMER, then add the E for first person singular and the accent on the E which converts it into the future tense.
With this simple explanation, we have to go into further detail because there are three basic groups of spanish verbs to study, each having different rules to express time, person and action. In spanish, we have to know the root of the verb that tells the action and its infinitive ending. We then make a list like a periodic table chart.
Spanish verb table
Spanish verb ending in |
– AR – | – ER – | – IR – |
Infinitive: | Hablar ( to speak) | comer ( to eat) | Vivir ( to live ) |
Present: | yo hablo ( I speak) | yo como ( I eat) | yo vivo ( I live) |
Indicative | tú hablas ( you speak) | tú comes (you eat) | tú vives ( you live) |
spanish verb familar you singular | |||
él habla ( he speaks ) | él come ( he speaks) | él vive ( he lives) | |
ella habla (she speaks) | ella come (she speaks) | ella vive (she lives) | |
Being as everything in spanish is either masculine or femenine IT does not exist | |||
vosotros habláis (you speak) | vos. Coméis (you eat) | vos. vivís (you live) | |
spanish verbs familiar you plural | |||
usted habla (speak you) | Ud. come ( you eat ) | Ud. vive ( you live) | |
spanish verb familar you singular | |||
ustedes hablan (you speak) | Udes. Comen (you eat) | Udes. Viven (you live) | |
spanish verbs formal you plural | |||
ellos hablan (they speak) | ellos comen (they eat) | ellos viven (they live) | |
nosotros hablamos (we speak) | nos. comemos (we eat) | nos. Vivmios (we live) | |
Preterite: | yo hablé ( I spoke) | yo comí ( I ate) | yo viví ( I lived) |
Imperfect: | yo hablaba ( I was speaking) ( I used to speak) |
yo comía (I was eating) ( I used to eat) |
yo vivía( I was living) ( I used to live) |
Future: | yo hablaré (I will speak) | yo comeré (I will eat) | yo viviré (I will live) |
Conditional: | yo hablaría (I´d speak) | yo comería (I´d eat) | yo viviría ( I´d live) |
These are the most important verbs in spanish with normal roots that do not change. Note the accents on some words of the spanish alphabet. The spanish verb conjugation is very complex and needs intense study to be able to speak it correctly.
On the other hand, if our memory fails us and we cannot remember a specific spanish verb and the spanish verb conjugation of this particular verb, we can always turn to our modern technology to help us us out instantly. There are calculator type machines that are very handy and easy to carry which serve as spanish verb conjugator. You write in the spanish verb or english one, and the machine indicates the verb and its conjugation. There are two small disadvantages to using these machines. The machine does not understand all the different meanings or the meaning that you want the spanish to express. Furthermore, this tool has a limited memory and can only include the most commonly used spanish verb.
But, here is fantastic software programs that you can install in your computer and web pages where you can do a spanish verb conjugation right then and there with no program installment necessary. The Comp-jugador is a good place on the net to go to, but they are still working on its word capacity and there is a limited spanish verb list. La Real Academía Española ( The Royal Spanish Language Academy) under the management of the University of Oviedo also has an interesting spanish verb conjugation page. Both of these programs are very easy to use even if you do not have a spanish keyboard. If you have to put accents or special symbols over letters, you can easily type them in like this: á = ´a ; ñ = ~n ; or ~n = ñ ; ü = :u
And, if everything else fails, we can always use the old way of finding a spanish verb and look it up in an excellent dictionary called The Diccionario del Verbo Español, Hispanoamericano y Dialectal by Jaime Sauceo-Torres.
Lastly, for those especially interested in learning more in depth knowledge about spanish verb conjugations, there is the Instituto de Verbología Hispano. This organization gives this group of people the opportunity to read texts with the finality of finding new spanish verb that have not been included in the already existing list of spanish verbs. Through this task, the I. de V. H. analyses the use of certain verbs in determined areas and from this study we learn new phrasal spanish verb, culture and where its origin has come from. The I. de V.H. accepts donations of books, dictionaries, newspapers, pamphlets, magazines, vocabulary books all originally written in spanish, with a special mention on scientific works.
Once you are initiated into the learning of a language, especially the latin based spanish language, you will find your eyes, ears and heart opening up into a marvelous fascinating world where the key to our comprehension is the spanish verb.