Spanish Regular Verbs

Elizabeth Navedo ArbeláezS00069808ENGL 360

Contrastive Analysis of English and SpanishProfessor: Dr. Evelyn Lugo Morales

Spanish Regular Verbs

Spanish Regular Verbs

• Spanish Regular Verbs are those verbs that conjugate in a totally uniform way, without modifying their stem, and empolying the corresponding ending in every mode and time to the conjugaction to which it belongs.

• In the Spanish Regular Verbs the stem is the part that expreses it’s infinitive way.

• It identifies the action that the verb enunciates • Verbs in Spanish act differently from verbs in English• Infinitive is the unconjugated form of a verb, such as " to

write," " to be," " to want," " to run."• Conjugation is the process of changing the form of a verb

to reflect the desired tense and subject

Spanish Regular Verbs• Verbs in Spanish not only contain information about when the action took place

(the tense), but also who performed the action (the subject). • In Spanish there are three categories of verbs: -ar; -er; and -ir.• The unstressed present tense endings for -er and -ir verbs are essentially the

same as for -ar verbs, except that the a vowel of the ending is replaced by e (so instead of -as, the tú form ends in -es etc):

Person Ending Example with COMER

Example with VIVIR

Example with AMAR

yo – I o yo como – I eat yo vivo – I live yo amo – I love

tú – you

es / as tú comes – you eat tú vives – you live tú amas – you love

él/ella he/she

e / a el / ella come – he /she eats

el / ella vive - he / she lives

el/ella ama – he / she loves

ellos/ ellas – they

en / an ellos / ellas comen they eat

ellos/ellas viven -they live

ellos/ellas aman - they love

Spanish Verbs

• There are many Spanish verbs (like ser and estar) that convey distinctions in meanings that do not exist in English.

•

• All Spanish verbs are either "regular" or "irregular• Spanish verbs have many more possibilities in its simple forms. • Spanish verbs pack all of the following into a single word form:

verb stem + tense marker + person marker

Singular Subject Plural Subject

Yo (I) soy Nosotros/as (we) somos

Tú (familiar you) eres Vosotros/as (familiar you) sois

Usted, él, ella (polite you, he, she)

es Ustedes, ellos, ellas (you, them)

son

• For example, the word veíamos is from the Spanish verb ver, meaning to see, to watch.

• The form veíamos normally means something like "we were watching" (as in we were watching TV), and can be broken down into the following parts:

The verb stem: ve-, which identifies which verb it is

The tense marker: -ía-, which marks this form as a tense

usually referred to as the imperfect

The person marker: -mos, meaning "we"

Spanish Verbs

Spanish Regular Verbs

Verb Pr Part Pa Part Present Preterit Imperfect Future Imperative

Reg. -ar

hablando hablado Hablo, as, a, amos, an

Hablé,aste, ó

Hablaba, s, mos, n

Hablaré, ás, á, emos, án

Habla, hablad

Reg. -er

comiendo comido Como, es, e, emos, en

Comí, iste, ió, imos, ieron

Comía, s, mos, n

Comeré, ás, á, emos, án

Come, comed

Reg.-ir

viviendo vivido Vivo, es, e, imos, en

Viví, iste, ió, imos, ieron

Vivía, s, mos, n

Viviré, ás, á, emos, án

Vive, vivid

It is important to know the stem of the verb so that you can add the endings to it, like the stem of hablar is habl, comer: com, vivir: viv. I speak = yo + habl+o = yo hablo. present participle, past participle, present indicative, preterit indicative, Imperfect indicative, future indicative, imperative (Commands).

Spanish Verbs

• The above formula of stem + tense + person makes things look simpler than they actually are.

• In many verb forms, there are complications in how these parts are actually put together.

• Some verbs have irregular stems, which in turn can depend on the tense. So in that sense, the "stem" and "tense" part of the verb form aren't quite so separate all the time.

• Although the ending -mos works for all forms, other persons such as the I form, can actually have different endings depending on the tense.

• The "tense" and "person ending" parts of the verb form aren't always quite so separate either.

Spanish Regular Verb in Present Tense

Preterit indicative (pretérito de indicativo

Yo Tú Ud./él/ella Nosotros/as Vosotros/as Uds./ellos/ellas

HablarSpeak/talk

HabloI speak

HablasYou speak

HablaHe/she speaks

HablamosWe speak

Habláis HablanThey speak

ComerEat

ComoI eat

ComesYou eat

ComeHe/she eat

ComemosWe eat

Coméis ComenThey eat

VivirLive

VivoI live

VivesYou live

ViveHe/she lives

VivimosWe live

Vivís VivenThey live

Contrast between English and Spanish

In English, the subject has to be specified before the verb

• I write (present tense)• I wrote (past tense)• We will write (future

tense)

In Spanish, the information can be contained in a single word.

• Escribo (present tense)• Escribiste (preterit past

tense)• Escribiremos (future

tense)

Spanish

hablar• yo hablo • usted habla• nosotros/as hablamos• ustedes hablan

comer • yo como • usted come• nosotros/as comemos• ustedes comen

vivir• yo vivo• usted vive• nosotros/as vivimos• ustedes viven

English

to speak • I speak• you speak• we speak• you-all speak

to eat• I eat• you eat• we eat• you-all eat

to live• I live• you live• we live• you-all live

Contrast between English and Spanish

Functions of Spanish Regular Verbs

Imperfect tense

Imperative

Future tense

Preterit

Conditional tense

Imperfect tense

• A past tense that is a single word in Spanish (i.e. it is a simple tense)

• Often translated in English by used to … or was / were … ing• Generally used to describe an event or state but without viewing

its “end point”• The form of the imperfect tense in Spanish fall in two patterns: -ar; -er; and -ir. • The form of the imperfect tense of –ar verbs which are based on

the ending -aba plus a person ending in some cases.• The form of the imperfect tense of -er and -ir verbs is formed

using a different set of endings. • The basic pattern is that the infinitive ending (-er or -ir) is

replaced with -ía. Then, regular person endings are added where necessary.

• Almost all verbs commonly classed as "irregular" ending in -er/-ir also follow this pattern.

Person Stem - aba form

Person ending

Imperfect form

yo

-aba- -s-

CantabaI used to sing; I was singing

Cantabas You used to sing; you were singing

tú

él/ella Cantaba He/she used to sing ; he/ she was singing

nosotros-as Cant- -ába- mos Cantábamos We used to sing; we were singing

vosotros-as

-aba-

-is- CantabaisYou (all )used to sing; you were (all) singing

-n-CantabanThey used to sing; they were singingellos/ellas

Imperfect tense of –ar verbs

- ar verbs have imperfect tense forms ending in – aba – (plus a person ending)

Imperfect tense of –er and –ir verb

Person Ending Example

Yo -ía Hacer > hacía I was making/doing, I used to to/make

Tú -ías Comer > comías You were eating, you used to eat

Él/ellas -ía Escribir > escrbía He/she was writing, he/she used to write

Nosotros, -as -íamos Leer > leíamosWe were reading, we used to write

Vosotros, - as -íais Vender > vendíais You were (all) selling, you (all) used to sell

Ellos/ellas -ían Correr > corrían They wer running, they used to run

Adding -ía then the person endings, this gives the following endings for the imperfect of -er and -ir verbs:

Future Tense

• Spanish verbs have a single-word form that carries roughly the meaning of English will or 'll (as in we will try, he'll eat, they'll come etc).

• The future tense of most verbs consists of the infinitive plus an ending.

• Occasionally, a slightly modified form of the infinitive is used (vendrá, not venirá).

Future indicative (futuro indictivo)

yo tú Usted/él/ella

Nosotros/as

Vosotros/as

Ustedes/ellos/ellas

HablarSpeak/talk

HablaréI will speak/Talk

HablarásYou will speak/Talk

HablaráHe/she will speak/talk

HablaremosWe will speak/talk

Hablaréis HablaránThey will speak/talk

ComerEat

ComeréI will eat

ComerásYou will eat

ComeráHe/she will eat

ComeremosWe will eat

Comeréis ComeránThey will eat

VivirLive

ViviréI will live

VivirásYou will live

ViviráHe/she will live

ViviremosWe will live

Viviréis Vivirán They will live

Conditional Verb Forms

• Spanish has a single-word verb form that roughly corresponds to English would/'d ....

• It generally expresses either (a) something that would happen based on a condition (the condition may be implied rather than stated), or (b) future-in-the-past.

Examples of Spanish conditional forms:

lo haría si... I'd do it if... dijo que vendría he said he'd come

Spanish Regular Verb Preterit (past tense)

Preterit indicative(pretérito de indicativo)

yo tú usted/él/ella

Nosotros/as

Vosotros/as

Ustedes/ellos/ellas

HablarSpeak/talked

HabléI spoke/talked

HablasteYou spoke/Talked

HablóHe/she spoke/talked

HablamosWe spoke/talked

hablasteis HablaronThey spoke/Talked

ComerEat

ComíI ate

ComisteYou ate

ComióHe/she ate

ComimosWe ate

comisteis ComieronThey ate

VivirLive

VivíI lived

viviste You lived

VivióHe/she lived

VivimosWe lived

vivisteis VivieronThey lived

The Preterit is equal to the past tense.

Spanish Regular Imperative Verbs

Commands(Mandatos)

Tú Vosotros/as Usted Ustedes

HablarSpeak

¡Habla!¡No hables!

¡Hablad!¡No habléis!

¡Hable¡No hable!

¡Hablen! ¡No hablen!

ComerEat

¡Come! ¡No comas!

¡Comed! ¡No comáis!

¡Coma! ¡No coma!

¡Coman! ¡No coman!

VivirLive

¡Vive ¡No vivas!

¡Vivid! ¡No viváis!

¡Viva! ¡No viva!

¡Vivan! ¡No vivan!

The imperative or command verb in Spanish are like giving orders to others.

References

• http://www.rocketlanguages.com/spanish/resources/spanish_verbs.php

• http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/regverb1.htm• http://www.escueladigital.com.uy/espaniol/verbos_reg.htm• http://

www.espanol-ingles.com.mx/spanish-grammar/verbs_introduction.shtml

• http://quizlet.com/334380/regular-spanish-verbs-meanings-flash-cards/

• http://spanish.speak7.com/spanish_regular_verbs.htm