Conjugating Verbs in Spanish
The first thing to know is that there are two parts of every Spanish verb: (1.) The Ending and (2.) The Stem. Let's start with talking about a verb's "ending".
THE ENDING / Infinitives
Before a verb is conjugated, we have no way of telling who is doing the action of that verb. It is left in its infinitive form. Some examples in English of infinitives (verbs that have not yet been conjugated) would be "to run", "to study", "to hide", "to speak", and "to watch tv". Can we identify who is doing the action in any of these verbs? No, we can't. The verb has not yet been conjugated according to the subject (or actor) of a sentence.
In Spanish, we can identify verbs in their infinitive forms by their ending. There are three endings that all regular Spanish verbs will fall under:
THE ENDING / Infinitives
Before a verb is conjugated, we have no way of telling who is doing the action of that verb. It is left in its infinitive form. Some examples in English of infinitives (verbs that have not yet been conjugated) would be "to run", "to study", "to hide", "to speak", and "to watch tv". Can we identify who is doing the action in any of these verbs? No, we can't. The verb has not yet been conjugated according to the subject (or actor) of a sentence.
In Spanish, we can identify verbs in their infinitive forms by their ending. There are three endings that all regular Spanish verbs will fall under:
- Verbs that end in "ar" - such as hablar, cantar, escuchar, dibujar, calificar.
- Verbs that end in "er" - such as comer, correr, beber, leer, extender.
- Verbs that end in "ir" - such as escribir, vivir, compartir.
Again, the verbs listed above are in their infinitive form. We have not yet changed them to accompany a subject in order for us to know who is doing the action. In English, we can take a regular verb and change it to meet its conjugation pattern. Take for example the verb "to eat". In English, conjugating the infinitive verb "to eat" would look like this:
TO EAT
I eat
You eat
He / She eats
We eat
They eat
I eat
You eat
He / She eats
We eat
They eat
Our conjugation pattern in English is almost the same for all subjects ("eat") except with the third person singular (He / She), which changes to "eats"; an "s" is added to "eat". When a verb is conjugated in Spanish, however, we change the verb in all five forms. Let's see how!
The 3 Steps for Conjugating Any Verb in Spanish
STEP 1 - The first step is identifying the verb ending. It is an AR verb? ER verb? IR verb? Each verb type has it's own conjugation endings.
Subject Pronouns |
AR Verbs |
ER Verbs |
IR Verbs |
yo |
o |
o |
o |
tú |
as |
es |
es |
él / ella / usted |
a |
e |
e |
nosotros / nosotras |
amos |
emos |
imos |
ellos / ellas / ustedes |
an |
en |
en |
THE STEM
STEP 2 - Once you have identified the type of verb, remove its ending from the word. This will leave what is called "the stem" of the verb. Some examples:
STEP 2 - Once you have identified the type of verb, remove its ending from the word. This will leave what is called "the stem" of the verb. Some examples:
- If you take the verb "hablar" --- remove the "ar" from the word and you will be left with the stem of the word, "habl__"
- If you take the verb "comer" --- remove the "er" from the word and you will be left with the stem of the verb, "com__"
- If you take the verb "vivir" --- remove the "ir" from the word and you will be left with the stem of the verb, "viv__"
STEP 3 - Now that you have created the "stem" of the verb, you are ready to give your verb "life" by adding a verb ending to it to match the subject of the sentence. For example, in our lesson on Spanish Subject Pronouns, we learned that the Spanish word "yo" means "I". Using the chart above with the verb conjugation patterns, you will see that "o" is the corresponding verb ending for the subject pronoun "yo". Therefore, we can attach it to any of our verb stems to tell that it is "I" who is doing the action. For example:
Yo hablo. = I speak
Yo como. = I eat
Yo vivo = I live.
(Note: Because we can already tell who the subject of the verb is by the ending that we just added, it's not even necessary to include the subject pronoun "yo". Including the pronouns as such would add emphasis to the subject. However, for the time being, adding the subject pronoun might help you to develop a faster connection between the conjugation endings and the subject pronouns.
Let's try another. We can look at the chart above and see that "amos", "emos", and "imos" are the verb endings that we will use to indicate that the subject of the verb is "we". Therefore, we simply attach these verb endings to the verb stem to give them life.
Nosotros hablamos. - We speak.
Nosotros comemos. - We eat.
Nosotros vivimos. - We live.
(Note: Again, adding "nosotros" is not necessary; but it is good practice for now.)
It is critical that you use the correct verb endings. One cannot use "er" verb endings for a verb that ends in "ar" and etc.
Yo hablo. = I speak
Yo como. = I eat
Yo vivo = I live.
(Note: Because we can already tell who the subject of the verb is by the ending that we just added, it's not even necessary to include the subject pronoun "yo". Including the pronouns as such would add emphasis to the subject. However, for the time being, adding the subject pronoun might help you to develop a faster connection between the conjugation endings and the subject pronouns.
Let's try another. We can look at the chart above and see that "amos", "emos", and "imos" are the verb endings that we will use to indicate that the subject of the verb is "we". Therefore, we simply attach these verb endings to the verb stem to give them life.
Nosotros hablamos. - We speak.
Nosotros comemos. - We eat.
Nosotros vivimos. - We live.
(Note: Again, adding "nosotros" is not necessary; but it is good practice for now.)
It is critical that you use the correct verb endings. One cannot use "er" verb endings for a verb that ends in "ar" and etc.