Importance of Verb Tenses
Last updated on 2025-01-07 | Edit this page
Overview
Questions
- Why do we need to learn how to conjugate?
- What are the Spanish subjects?
Objectives
- Explain how sentences in Spanish use verb tenses
- Explain the Spanish subjects and how they work with verbs
- Learn about verb stems and conjugates
Verb Tenses
In English, we often use verb tenses in sentences. For example, a common sentence to learn english is “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.” In Spanish, the sentence structures are often similar if not the same. A key part of learning Spanish is learning how to conjugate verbs.
In English, the sentence is “The cat eats.” The verb of the sentence is eats, and the subject is the cat. Similarly, in Spanish, the sentence is: “El gato come.” The subject of the sentence (“El gato” aka the cat), comes before the verb, “come”.
Identify the subject and the verb of the following sentence:
The bird flies over the house.
The subject is the bird, because it performs the action. The verb is flies, the action of the sentence.
Question
What is the sentence structure for English/Spanish sentences?
object + verb + subject
Spanish subjects
In order to conjugate verbs, a key part we need are the subjects. In English, subjects are typically people. In Spanish, the subjects are:
| I | You | He/She | We | They | You all |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yo | Tú | Él/Ella | Nosotros/as | Ellos/as | Ustedes |
Subjects are important because we need them for verb conjugation. Verb conjugation is the process of changing a verb form to provide information about the action being performed, such as who is performing it, when it is happening, and how it relates to other parts of the sentence. In Spanish, verbs are conjugated to reflect these aspects.
In both English and Spanish, sentences typically follow a subject-verb-object (SVO) structure. Understanding how verbs are conjugated allows you to form coherent and grammatically correct sentences.
Review
How would you refer to your Grandma? Your sisters?
Your Grandma is ella, your sisters are ellas.
Two forms of conjugation
In Spanish, there are two forms of conjugation.
Infinitive Form: The base form of the verb (e.g., “hablar” - to speak). Conjugated Forms: Modified forms of the verb to agree with the subject and indicate the tense (e.g., “yo hablo” - I speak, “tú hablas” - you speak).
While you occasionally use the infinitive form, learning to create conjugated forms is essential to learning how to speak Spanish. Conjugated forms help you express different moods and periods of time during which actions are performed.
The three types of verb endings
In Spanish, verbs have 3 types of endings: 1. -Ar endings 2. -Er endings 3. -Ir endings
The three types of endings will affect how you conjugate different verbs. It is important to conjugate correctly according to the type of ending a verb has, otherwise you may express a different mood than what you mean. Moods will be explained in the next episode. In order to conjugate verbs, you must remove the verb endings. A verb stem is the part of a verb that remains after you remove its ending.
Example
For the verb hablar, its verb stem is habl-
When you conjugate verbs, you will use the verb stem and attach different endings to the stem to create different tenses of the verb. If the concept is difficult to understand, think about the word “cooked”. If we take off “-ed”, we get the verb stem “cook”. Infinitives in English generally translate to “cooking”, or “baking”, etc. If we want to talk about Sheila, we can say, “Sheila cooked the turkey.” This expresses that the turkey is already prepared, and she has finished cooking. We can also say, “Sheila cooks the turkey.” This expresses that she is still cooking the turkey.
Practice
What is the verb stem of the verb pedir?
Pedi-
Practice (continued)
Now that we understand verb stems, and the purpose of conjugation, we will learn how to conjugate in two different tenses in the next episode.
Callout
To learn more about why verbs only have 3 ending types, visit this stack exchange post
Key Points
- Spanish sentence structure typically aligns with English
- Verb conjugation has two forms
- There are three verb endings
- Conjugation involves a verb stem and conjugate