Spanish Verbs

Conjugate Spanish Verbs

Spanish verbs are either irregular or regular. They either end in the letters "ar, ir, or er". Most if not all verbs are the original base format, hence why they are infinitives. There are different kinds of verbs, different tenses, such as present and past, and the list goes on. In this short lesson, I will briefly go over a few topics in general.

When you first learn to conjugate Spanish verbs and use verbs, you will probably start with a certain indicative tense. This tense is known as the present indicative tense. It is actually used a lot in the Spanish language and this is one of the reasons many newcomers to the language start with this form. So let's begin with that one.

When do you use the present indicative verb tense? The answer is rather simple. It depends on the context of the sentence. However, there are a few general rules when you will normally use this verb. You can use the present indicative when you want to get instructions from someone, to state the truth, or to describe something happening at the present moment, or very soon. A key way to learning these verbs is to remember what they can mean. If you understand the context of the sentence, you should be just fine.

Alright, I think we should cover some other basic forms as well. Let's have a look at the past forms, otherwise known as the imperfect and preterite Spanish verbs. There is a difference between these two. When do you use them? You want to use the imperfect indicative when you are talking about an action that does not have a clear solid ending. In a different light, the action is imperfect because it is not complete. You will use the preterite form when talking about an action that has a clear ending in the sentence. Does that make sense?

How about other major verbs such as tener and haber. Both of these verbs mean "to have". Let's start with haber. Haber is used to mean the words, "there are" or "there is". It is also used in idioms as well as forming a compound tense. Tener on the other hand, is normally used to express emotion and expression. Tener is an irregular verb, meaning, not regular of course. Spanish uses the possession of something a little different than the English language. They say "to have sickness" for example, as opposed to just saying he or she was sick. For a complete learning experience, check out the box on this page. Days>>