Survival Spanish for travelers Lesson 4: Verbs, verbs everywhere! Part 1

Survival Spanish for

travelersLesson 4: Verbs, verbs everywhere!

Part 1

Welcom back travelers!This lesson is divided into 2 parts. In the first part we

are going to learn how to conjugate the Spanish regular and irregular verbs. In the second part we are going to

study how to conjugatethe past and the future.

Let’s start taking a general look at the regular and irregular verbs in some steps:

1) Understand subjects. The subject is the noun that the verb is referring to.To conjugate a verb in Spanish, you’ll first need to be familiar with the several

different personal subject pronouns in the language. Here they are:

Yo I Formal

Tú You Singular familiar

Usted You Singular formal

Él / ella He / she

Nosotros / as We

Vosotros / as You Plural familiar

Ustedes You Plural formal

Ellos / ellas They

2) Remove the ending. All Spanish verbs have the endings of either “-ar”, “-er” or “-ir”.

Once you remove the current ending, you can add on the new corresponding ending.

Unless the verb is reflexive; then it will have “se” tacked on past the end of the verb.

3) Conjugate “-ar” verbs.

Once you learn the form of conjugation for “-ar” verbs in the present tense, you

can just add the form to the end of any regular “-ar”

verbs.

He are the rules for conjugating them in present tense, using the

verb “hablar” (To talk)

Yo habloTú hablas

Él/ella hablaNosotros/as hablamos

Vosotros/as habláisEllos/ellas hablan

4) Conjugate “-er” verbs.

Learn the form for conjugating “-er” verbs in the present tense and just add it to the end of each

verb.

Here are the endings for the verb “-er” in the present tense, using the

verb “beber” (To drink)

Yo beboTú bebes

Él/ella bebeNosotros/as bebemos

Vosotros/as bebéisEllos/ellas beben

5) Conjugate “-ir” verbs.

Learn the form for conjugating “-ir” verbs in the present tense and just add it to the end of each

verb.

Here are the endings for the verb “-ir” in the present tense, using the

verb “vivir” (To live)

Yo vivoTú vives

Él/ella viveNosotros/as vivimos

Vosotros/as vivísEllos/ellas viven

Now let’s see a little bit how to conjugate the stem-changing verbs.

Conjugate verbs with a stem change from “o” to “ue” using

“dormir” (To sleep) as an example:

Yo duermo

Tú duermes

El/ella/usted duerme

Nosotros/as dormimos

Vosotros/as dormís

Ellos/ellas/ustedes duermen

Conjugate verbs with a stem change from “e” to “ie” using

“querer” (To want) as an example

Yo quiero

Tú quieres

Él/ella/usted quiere

Nosotros/as queremos

Vosotras/as queréis

Ellos/ellas/ustedes quieren

Conjugate verbs with a stem change from “e” to “i” using “seguir” (To follow or continue) as an

example:

Yo sigo

Tú sigues

Él/ella/usted sigue

Nosotros/as seguimos

Vosotros/as seguís

Ellos/ellas/ustedes siguen

You have to pay attention! Because some verbs are irregular

just in the first person. For example