Transcript Unit 1A: Labolengua

Unit 1A Labolengua
The present tense of verbs
(revision)
Unit 1A: Labolengua
A Regular verbs
When you look up a verb in a dictionary you will find it in the infinitive form
like this: hablar (to speak); comer (to eat); vivir (to live). Spanish infinitives
are made up of a stem + an ending: habl + ar. All regular verbs in Spanish
follow a pattern and fall into three groups, indicated by the last two letters of
the infinitive: -ar, -er, -ir.
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Unit 1A: Labolengua
Subject pronoun
(person doing the verb)
Infinitive
hablar – to speak comer – to eat
vivir – to live
yo – I
hablo
como
vivo
tú – you (s)
hablas
comes
vives
él – he / ella – she / usted
– you (formal)
habla
come
vive
nosotros/as – we
hablamos
comemos
vivimos
vosotros/as – you (pl)
habláis
coméis
vivís
ellos/ellas – they /
ustedes – you (pl formal)
hablan
comen
viven
Remember: the pattern of the verb ending tells you which
person is doing the verb so you don’t often need to use the
personal pronoun in Spanish unless you want to
emphasise who it is.
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Unit 1A: Labolengua
B Radical or stem-changing verbs
These verbs follow the regular pattern for the endings but change their
spelling in the stem of the verb. For example, u  ue: jugar (to play);
o  ue: poder (to be able); e  ie: preferir (to prefer). You will find them
in the dictionary set out like this:
jugar (ue)
poder (ue)
preferir (ie)
querer (ie)
juego
juegas
juega
jugamos
jugáis
juegan
puedo
puedes
puede
podemos
podéis
pueden
prefiero
prefieres
prefiere
preferimos
preferís
prefieren
quiero
quieres
quiere
queremos
queréis
quieren
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Unit 1A: Labolengua
C Reflexive verbs
These are verbs which have se attached to the end of the verb; for
example, levantarse ‘to get up’ (i.e. to get oneself up). The se part is called
a reflexive pronoun. This pronoun changes to match the person doing the
verb action.
me levanto – I get (myself) up
te levantas – you get (yourself) up
se levanta – he / she gets (himself / herself) up
nos levantamos – we get (ourselves) up
os levantáis – you get (yourselves) up
se levantan – they get (themselves) up
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Unit 1A: Labolengua
• Some reflexive verbs are also radical-changing, like the verbs in B:
despertarse (ie) to wake up;
acostarse (ue) to go to bed;
vestirse (i) to get dressed
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Unit 1A: Labolengua
D Present continuous
This is used to describe what is happening at the time of speaking or
writing.
It is formed with the present tense of the verb estar (to be) plus the verb of
action with its ending changed to -ando for -ar verbs and -iendo for
-er and -ir verbs. The endings -ando and -iendo in Spanish are like the
English ending -ing.
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Unit 1A: Labolengua
E Irregular verbs
The five main irregular verbs in Spanish are:
tener, hacer, ir, ser, estar.
You should memorise these.
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