1. Regular Present Tense Verbs

2. 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)

3. All persons have their own verb form: I am we are you are you all are he, she, it is 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.

4. Here are the Spanish pronouns that correspond to the English pronouns: I we yo nosotros you you all tú vosotros he, she, it they él, ella ellos

5. 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 nosotros hablamos tú hablas vosotros habláis él, ella habla ellos hablan

6. Let’s look at how we get all those verb forms: yo hablo nosotros hablamos tú hablas vosotros habláis él, ella habla ellos hablan What you do is take off the –ar and add the following endings: -o -amos -as -áis -a -an

7. -o -amos -as -áis -a -an That’s how you conjugate any verb that ends with –ar: nadar (to swim)llegar (to arrive) nado nadamos llego llegamos nadas nadáis llegas llegáis nada nadan llega llegan

8. 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.

9. Now look how “Ud.” and “Uds.” fit into the verb paradigm: yo hablo nosotros hablamos tú hablas vosotros habláis él, ella, Ud. habla 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.

10. Click here to go to a practice exercise.

11. 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: comer (to eat) -o -emos como comemos -es -éis comes coméis -e -en come comen Notice that the only difference between –er verbs and –ar verbs is that you use e’s instead of a’s: -o -amos -o -emos -as -áis -es -éis -a -an -e -en

12. Now for –ir verbs. Drop the –ir and add the following endings: abrir (to open) -o -imos abro abrimos -es -ís abres abrís -e -en 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 -emos -o -imos -es -éis -es -ís -e -en -e -en

13. 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.

14. Click here to go to a practice exercise.