Regular Present Tense Verbs

1
Regular Present Tense Verbs
2

• Lets 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

• Lets 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
• Thats 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

• Theres one more thing you need to know before
  youre 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 maam and sir. Spanish
  does it by having two ways to say you and two
  ways to say you all.
• Tú means you when youre talking to a
  friend.
• Usted (abbreviated Ud.) means you when
  youre talking to someone older or in authority,
  someone you call Mr. or Mrs. or Dr. rather
  than by the persons first name.
• Vosotros means you all when youre talking
  to a group of friends.
• Ustedes (abbreviated Uds.) means you all
  when youre 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 doesnt 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 doesnt 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 es instead of as
• -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? Theyre 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 es instead of as 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.