infoaboutspain.com Glossary    Contact Us
Search  
   
Browse by Category
infoaboutspain.com .: The Spanish language .: Grammar .: Can you explain the very basics of how Spanish verbs work?

Can you explain the very basics of how Spanish verbs work?

All Spanish verbs end in AR ER or IR.

The first part of the verb is called the stem and "AR ER or IR" are the affixes which go after the stem.

Here are examples of the 3 types of verbs.

Beb + ER = Beber (drink)
Viv + IR = Vivir (live)
Habl + AR = Hablar (speak)

Spanish like Latin has an inflexional verb system which means that we use the verb stem plus affixes to make tenses and meaning.

For example this is the present tense of the verb "Hablar" (speak)

Hablo - I speak
Hablas - You speak
Habla - He, she or it speaks
Hablamos - We speak
Habáis - You speak
Hablan - They speak

You can see the full conjugations of the regular verbs using these links.
Regular verbs are verbs which follow all the standard rules.
Once you know how to conjugate one regular verb you will know how to conjugate hundreds of verbs.

Beber

Vivir

Hablar

Spanish also has irregular verbs such as Ser (to be)
With this verb you could say:

Soy inglés (I am English)
¿Eres escocés? (Are you Scottish)
No soy galés. (I am not Welsh)

Click here to see the conjugation of ser

 


How helpful was this article to you?

Related Articles

article Do you have a basic list of the essential Spanish vocabulary for a trip of a few days?
Please use this link to find some basic ...

  12-8-2006    Views: 33174   
article Do you have a very basic guide to the Spanish language?
Please follow this link for a page which has a...

(No rating)  12-8-2006    Views: 32201   
article Can you recommend a Spanish school in Granada?
Colegio Hispanico is right in the centre and...

(No rating)  1-28-2009    Views: 2229   
article How should we use the subjunctive in Spanish?
There is a good guide here ...

(No rating)  11-21-2007    Views: 9190   
article How do you pronounce Spanish?
In comparison to English, the pronunciation of...

(No rating)  12-8-2006    Views: 31015   

User Comments

Add Comment
No comments have been posted.


.: Powered by Lore 1.6.1
All the information on this site is copyright and protected by international law.