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Spanish Basics Lesson 2: Lo Básico de Español Lección 2

Verb conjugations are an important part of Spanish grammar. In Spanish, verbs have six different conjugated forms depending on person and number, unlike in English which has little change. For example, the regular verb "comer" (to eat) is conjugated as "Yo como", "Tú comes", "El/Ella come", etc. Verbs are also classified by their infinitive endings -ar, -er, -ir, which determine their conjugation patterns. The verbs "Ser" and "Estar", both meaning "to be", are irregular verbs that are crucial to understand as they indicate permanent versus temporary states of being.

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58 views

Spanish Basics Lesson 2: Lo Básico de Español Lección 2

Verb conjugations are an important part of Spanish grammar. In Spanish, verbs have six different conjugated forms depending on person and number, unlike in English which has little change. For example, the regular verb "comer" (to eat) is conjugated as "Yo como", "Tú comes", "El/Ella come", etc. Verbs are also classified by their infinitive endings -ar, -er, -ir, which determine their conjugation patterns. The verbs "Ser" and "Estar", both meaning "to be", are irregular verbs that are crucial to understand as they indicate permanent versus temporary states of being.

Uploaded by

Rishav Chakrabarti
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Spanish Basics

Lesson 2
Lo básico de español
Lección 2
Conjugations
(Conjugaciones)

Verb conjugations are an important part of the Spanish language. What is a


conjugation? Each verb when contextualized in time depending on different
grammatical persons and number (singular/plural), the respective forms of the
verbs are called conjugations of the said verb. Conjugations is a natural
grammatical phenomenon in English too, although it doesn’t so many different
forms for each verb. Let’s consider the English verb “to eat”, the conjugations of
the verb in the simple present tense are given below.

I eat We eat
You eat You all eat
He/She eats They eat

As you can see, there’s hardly any change.


Conjugations
(Conjugaciones)
In Spanish we have six very different forms/conjugations for each verb for each
tense. The six forms are: yo = I, tú = you, él/ella/usted = he/she/you (formal),
vosotros = you all, nosotros = we, ellos/ellas/ustedes = they (m/f), they (f), you
all (formal). Now, let’s have a look at the conjugations of the verb “comer” (to
eat) in the simple present tense in Spanish.
Yo como Nosotros comemos
Tú comes Vosotros coméis
Él/Ella/Usted come Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes comen

As we can see all the forms are distinct. Mostly the conjugations of the verbs
follow a standard pattern, and such verbs are called regular verbs, for example
comer is a regular verb and it has regular conjugations; but often there are many
verbs that fail to follow a said pattern, and these verbs are called irregular
verbs. We’ll study the most common irregular verbs later.
Regular verb patterns
-ar, -er, -ir

There are three kinds of verbs in Spanish based on their endings in the infinitive
form: -ar, -er and –ir. The regular verbs follow a said pattern which is
demonstrated below using the present tense.
-ar verbs
Yo stem-o Nosotros stem-amos
Tú stem-as Vosotros stem-áis
Él/Ella/Usted stem-a Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes stem-an

-er/-ir verbs
Yo stem-o Nosotros stem-emos/imos
Tú stem-es Vosotros stem-éis/ís
Él/Ella/Usted stem-e Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes stem-en

Stem is the part of the verb without the ending, like “com” is the stem of
“comer”. Similarly “habl” is the stem of “hablar” (to speak/talk) and “viv” is the
stem of “vivir” (to live).
SER y ESTAR
Arguably, two of the most important verbs in Spanish, and both of them mean
“to be”. So, whenever we want to say something is, was, will be etc, we will use
one of these two words, now the question is which one? But before we answer
that question, let us quickly see how to conjugate these verbs. As you will see
below, these are actually irregular verbs.

SER
Yo soy Nosotros somos
Tú eres Vosotros sois
Él/Ella/Usted es Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes son

ESTAR
Yo estoy Nosotros estamos
Tú estás Vosotros estáis
Él/Ella/Usted está Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes están
Ser y Estar
Ser is used for identity, profession, nationality and any and all permanent states
of being. So, it can be considered to be a “permanent to be”.
(Yo) soy indio. = I’m an Indian.
(Yo) soy estudiante. = I’m a student.
(Tú) eres mujer. = You’re a woman
(Nosotros) somos hindúes. = We are hindus.
Es la verdad. = It’s the truth/ It’s true.
Estar is used for feelings, emotions and temporary states of being and also
location of people, objects, places etc. It can be considered to be a “temporary
to be”.
(Yo) estoy bien. = I’m fine.
(tú) estás aquí = You’re here.
(Ellos) están cansados = They are tired.
Calcuta está en el estado de Bengala Occidental. = Kolkata is in the state of West
Bengal.
Está lloviendo = It’s raining.

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