Transcript Regular Present Tense Verbs

Regular Present Tense
Verbs
Let’s talk about English verbs before discussing
Spanish verbs. In both English and Spanish,
there are six persons:
I
we (you & I, Juan & I)
you
you all (you & your friend)
he, she, it
they (Juan & Maria)
(Juan, Maria, the book)
All persons have their own verb form:
I am
you are
he, she, it is
we are
you all are
they are
It would be incorrect to say “I are” or “you is” or
“we am.” You have to use a particular verb
form with a particular subject.
Here are the Spanish pronouns that correspond
to the English pronouns:
I
you
he, she, it
we
you all
they
yo
tú
él, ella
nosotros
vosotros
ellos
Here you have the verb “to talk” with the
English subject pronouns:
I talk
we talk
you talk
you all talk
he, she, it talks they talk
Now look at the Spanish verb “hablar,” which
means “to talk”:
yo hablo
tú hablas
él, ella habla
nosotros hablamos
vosotros habláis
ellos hablan
Let’s look at how we get all those verb forms:
yo hablo
tú hablas
él, ella habla
nosotros hablamos
vosotros habláis
ellos hablan
What you do is take off the –ar and add the
following endings:
-o
-as
-a
-amos
-áis
-an
-o
-as
-a
-amos
-áis
-an
That’s how you conjugate any verb that
ends with –ar:
nadar (to swim)
nado nadamos
nadas nadáis
nada nadan
llegar (to arrive)
llego
llegamos
llegas
llegáis
llega
llegan
There’s one more thing you need to know before you’re ready
for a practice exercise. A lot of languages have different ways
to say “you” because you show more respect to some people
than to others. In the southern U.S., the way we do that is by
saying “ma’am” and “sir.” Spanish does it by having two ways
to say “you” and two ways to say “you all.”
“Tú” means “you” when you’re talking to a friend.
“Usted” (abbreviated “Ud.”) means “you” when you’re talking to
someone older or in authority, someone you call “Mr.” or “Mrs.”
or “Dr.” rather than by the person’s first name.
“Vosotros” means “you all” when you’re talking to a group of
friends.
“Ustedes” (abbreviated “Uds.”) means “you all” when you’re
talking to a group of people who are older or in authority.
Now look how “Ud.” and “Uds.” fit into the verb
paradigm:
yo hablo
tú hablas
él, ella, Ud. habla
nosotros hablamos
vosotros habláis
ellos, Uds. hablan
In spite of the fact that Ud., like tú, means “you,” it
doesn’t get the same verb that tú gets. It gets the verb
that él gets.
Likewise, in spite of the fact that Uds., like vosotros,
means “you all,” it doesn’t get the verb that vosotros
gets. It gets the verb that ellos gets.
Click here to go to a practice exercise.
There are two other types of regular verbs in Spanish:
verbs that end in –er and verbs that end in –ir. Take
off the –er and then add the following endings:
-o
-es
-e
-emos
-éis
-en
comer (to eat)
como
comemos
comes
coméis
come
comen
Notice that the only difference between –er verbs and –
ar verbs is that you use e’s instead of a’s:
-o
-as
-a
-amos
-áis
-an
-o
-es
-e
-emos
-éis
-en
Now for –ir verbs. Drop the –ir and add the following
endings:
-o
-es
-e
-imos
-ís
-en
abrir (to open)
abro
abrimos
abres
abrís
abre
abren
Do you see what the difference is between –er and –ir
verbs? They’re just alike except for the nosotros and
vosotros forms:
-o
-es
-e
-emos
-éis
-en
-o
-es
-e
-imos
-ís
-en
So the only difference between –ar verbs
and –er verbs is that you use e’s instead
of a’s in the –er verbs. And the only
difference between –er verbs and –ir verbs
is the nosotros and vosotros forms.
Click here to go to a practice exercise.