Get ready for the fact that conjugation of Spanish verbs is not the topic of one lesson, and any attempt to take it “in a hurry” will only lead to confusion and conviction that the Spanish grammar (this is a surprise!) Is incredibly complicated.
This article will highlight the most important and necessary, something that will help not to get confused in the future.
Verbs in Spanish, unlike English, where there is only the ending -s in the second person, are conjugated by all persons. That is why we are so simple, speaking in Spanish, we can omit the pronoun altogether. Why is it needed if the verb already shows who it is about: about him, about them or about you? But that is far from all. Verbs are one of the most difficult grammar topics in the Spanish language. One verb has more than 20 forms, changing:
1) by persons (me, you, you, etc.),
2) numbers (I, we, etc.),
3) tenses (in Spanish 15 temporary forms),
4) inclinations (I do, I would do, etc.).
And also the verb can be used in active or passive voice (I built a house, the house was built by me).
This article deals only with the conjugation of Spanish verbs, that is, their change in persons and numbers.
In Spanish, there are three types of conjugation of verbs depending on the end in the initial form. Verbs that end in “-ar” conjugate in the first type (eg, besar - kiss), verbs ending in “–er” - in the second (eg, beber - drink), verbs with “–ir” - in the third (escribir - to hide). There is, in fact, nothing complicated, just remember the endings for each type. Of course, in the formation of endings there will be similarities and their own logic. In all three types of conjugation in the first person singular, the verb will have an ending - "o" (beso, bebo, escribo). Let's look further: second-person endings for the same verbs - “-as, -es, -es”. The third person is singular for all genera: "-a, -e, -e." It is easy to see: both there and there the second and third types of declensions suggest “–e” in the ending, and in the endings of the first type we see “a”. The first person is the plural: "-amos, -emos, -imos." Obviously, in this person the verbs with the ending “ar” get the ending “-amos”, the verbs with “er” the ending “-emos”, the verbs with “ir” end with “–imos”. The similarity with the initial form of the word is obvious. In the second person singular, the verbs have the endings: "-a'is", "-e'is", "-i's", in the second person the plural: "-an", "-en", "–en". And here again we can find parallels either with the end of the main form of the verb, or with the fact that the first type of conjugation gets the letter “a” at the end, and the other two types - “e”. By the way, new words in Spanish tend to be in the first type, which gives every reason to consider it a priority in the study.
But, of course, one cannot do without exceptions to the rule. In this case, exceptions cover such a volume of vocabulary that they can hardly be called exceptions. There is a huge group of verbs that do not conjugate according to the rules indicated above - irregular verbs. They, in turn, are divided into two groups:
1) Verbs whose conjugation cannot be laid out in any general scheme. For example, the verb ver (see) tends according to individual rules.
2) Irregular verbs that can be combined into groups according to conjugation peculiarities, and they will conjugate according to the same rules within the same group - these are the so-called deviating verbs.
The number of verbs of individual conjugation in Spanish is 21. They just need to be learned. But you should not think that this will be such a difficult task. Firstly, these verbs are very often used. Secondly, no need to pounce on them right away. Once you understand the conjugation logic of regular verbs, the peculiarities of the verbs of this group will immediately catch your eye, and what is well understood is well remembered.
As for deviating verbs, they are distinguished by six groups. There is a division into seven groups. In the reference book by N. I. Popova, 81 conjugation patterns of Spanish verbs are highlighted. In fact, the grouping method does not really matter.
How to learn conjugation of Spanish verbs?
In addition to breaking down the vast amount of information on the conjugation of verbs into “digestible” parts and studying them one after another, it is necessary to properly master the development of the material. And here we can distinguish two psychological processes that are important in any training: understanding and remembering. Line them up strictly sequentially. First understanding, then remembering. As already shown in this article, conjugation of Spanish verbs is carried out according to a completely logical scheme. And, despite the fact that the memory will still have to be actively used, a simple awareness can significantly speed up the process. At the initial stage, it is enough to take a table with the conjugation of regular verbs or even compose it independently and try to find all the connections and patterns, like the ones mentioned above. After the rules are conscious, close, understandable, you should proceed to a purely mechanical mental work - remembering. And this is achieved with the help of constant repetitions, exercises that will help to learn how to apply the acquired knowledge.
Verb Conjugations (Spanish): Exercises
What Spanish exercises can I choose to reinforce my knowledge of verb conjugation? These are mainly exercises in which sentences with a missed verb are given. You need to choose its correct form from the proposed options or write it yourself. This is not always effective, because such exercises are rarely really interesting. You can make it simpler: try to translate the phrases of others around you, your own thoughts, imaginary situations, choosing the correct form of the verb for each case, and then checking yourself with the help of a reference book.
Conjugation of irregular Spanish verbs should also be studied sequentially. The only thing you should not do is to take one group of deviating verbs and study only it until it is fully worked out. It will be much better to take from each group several of the most used verbs (and there are such in each group) and, using their example, carefully analyze the conjugation rules. Then learn these words and learn how to use them in the correct form. And only after the ease with them is achieved, should we pass on to other words from each group. It is likely that they will not have to be crammed, because the declination pattern is already clear.
Thus, conjugation of Spanish verbs may seem like an impossible task at first. Subsequently, looking back, you will be surprised why this topic was taken so hard in general, because Spanish is not included in the ranking of the most difficult languages in the world, unlike Russian or Chinese, which, due to its difficulty in learning, is even mentioned in the Book of Records Guinness.