Conjugate Any Verb in Any Tense in Spanish
Conjugate Spanish Verbs (Present Tense) in Spanish can be rather difficult, especially if there are different tenses to memorize. There are certain rules that can be hard to remember, but conjugation becomes easier once you understand them. If you want to learn how to conjugate a verb for different tenses, this guide will help explain each tense.
Steps
- Select the verb you want to use. Once you have chosen your verb, look at the last two letters in its ending. All verbs fall into three verb categories by their endings: -ar, -er, or -ir. For instance, if you were to look at the simple verbs hablar (to speak) or comer (to eat), you would see that they end in -ar or -er.
- Learn the six different subject pronouns. These will affect the process of conjugating the verb. They are known as "I', you, he/she/you formal, we, and they/you all." Translated to Spanish, they are yo, tú, él/ella/usted, nosotros, vosotros, and ellos/ellas/ustedes.
- Understand the difference between past and present tense. The ar, er, and ir verbs all conjugate in a similar manner. However, they are different in key areas to make the stress remain on the same syllable of a tense to keep the sound shape. For instance, piso (yo) - which is present tense - places stress on the first syllable. Meanwhile, pisó (él) - which is past tense - stresses on the second syllable.
- Saying the two tenses out loud will help you manage better.
- You can add some mental help to further understand the difference. For instance, Yo piso ahora and Él pisó ayer.
- Learn to conjugate your verb into present tense. In order to correctly conjugate your verb, first look at the subject in order to determine what ending your verb will have. Once you have found your subject, drop the -ar, -er, or -ir from your verb and replace it with the appropriate ending. For instance, the sentence "I speak" would become "Yo hablo." The original word hablar loses the -ar and is replaced with an -o. Note that this rule applies to all tenses (past, present, and future).
- For all present tense verbs that end with -ar, drop the ending and replace it with one of the following: -o, -as, -a, -amos, -ais, or -an. For instance, the word "I listen" would become "Yo escucho."
- For all present tense verbs that end with -er, drop the ending and replace it with one of the following: -o, -es , -e , -emos, -eis, or -en. For instance, the sentence "I eat" would become "Yo como."
- For all present tense verbs that end with -ir, drop the ending and replace it with one of the following: -o, -es, -e, -imos, -ís, or -en. For instance, the sentence "I open" would become "Yo abro."
- Learn to conjugate your verb into preterite tense. Preterite tense refers to events and/or actions that (a) have already occurred at certain time, (b) have been performed more than once, or (c) have occurred during a period of time (ex: a year). The same rules mentioned above can be applied to your verb, only there will be different endings. In this case, -er and -ir verbs have the same endings.
- For all preterite tense verbs that end with -ar, drop the ending and replace it with one of the following: -é, -aste, -ó, -amos, -asteis, or -aron. For instance, the sentence "I spoke" would become "Yo hablé."
- For all preterite tense verbs that end with -er or -ir, drop the ending and replace it with one of the following: -í, -iste, -ió, -imos, -isteis, or -ieron. For instance, the sentences "I ate" and "I opened" would become "Yo comí" and "Yo abrí."
- Learn to conjugate your verb into the imperfect tense. The imperfect tense is simply used for repeated events or ones that don't end in one instance. Examples would be going to school or work. For instance, the sentence "I went to the store every day" would be "Yo iba a la tienda todos los días." The same rules mentioned above can be applied to your verb, only there will be different endings. In this case, -er and -ir verbs will have the same endings. They all have accents on the "i" to keep the stress on the vowel.
- For imperfect tense verbs that end with -ar, drop the ending and replace it with one of the following: -aba, -abas, -aba, -ábamos,-abais, or -aban.
- For imperfect tense verbs that end with -er or -ir, drop the ending and replace it with one of the following: -ía, -ías, -ía, -iamos,-íais, or -ían.
- Learn to conjugate your verb into the present/past/future progressive tense. This tense refers to English verbs that end in -ing. For this, you would use the word estar (to be) and place it before your verb. Then, you can conjugate it according to the tense you're using (present, preterite, or imperfect). Remove the last two letters from your verb before replacing them with the proper ending. The -ar verbs would use the ending -ando while -er and -ir verbs would use -iendo. For instance, the sentences "I am speaking" and "I am eating" would become "Estoy hablando" and "Estoy comiendo."
- Estar in preterite would be estuve, estuviste, estuvo, estuvimos, estuvimos, and estuvieron.
- Estar in present would be estoy, estas, esta, estamos, and estan.
- Estar in imperfect would be estaba, estabas, estaba, estabamos, and estaban.
- Learn about the present/past perfect tense. These two tenses allow you to use a past event and bring it into the present. For present perfect, the formula is "haber (to have) + present participles." The word haber in the present perfect is conjugated as he, has, ha, hemos, habeis, or han. The same goes for past perfect (also known as pluscuamperfecto). But instead of using the earlier conjugation of haber, you conjugate it as había, habías, había, habíamos, habíais, or habían with an accent on all the letter i's.
- Learn to conjugate your verb into future tense. This tense will allow you to talk about events that will happen in the future. All regular verbs follow the single conjugation -é, ás, á, emos, eis, and án with an accent on the endings marked so. All -ar, -er, and -ir verbs will use those endings for future tense. However, in this case, you won't be dropping any of the verb endings. Instead, you'll add the ending to the verb. For instance, the sentence "I will kill you" would be "Yo te mataré."
- Learn to conjugate your verb into the conditional tense. Conditional works in a similar manner as the future tense when it comes to conjugation. It's used to talk about "what would/could" happen in the future. It's less commonly used, but you only need to conjugate all regular verbs with ía, ías, ía, íamos, íais, or ían, remembering to add an accent on all the i's. For this tense, you won't need to drop any of the verb endings. Instead, fix the ending onto the end of the word (ex: hablaría).
- Learn to conjugate your verb into the subjunctive tense. It is more of a mood than a tense. It allows you to describe any events/actions that cause doubt, hope, wish, desire, emotion, or impersonal/passive phrases starting with se. Place the independent clause first, which is the normal verb that begins the subjunctive. Then, add the word que (that), which links the independent and dependent clauses together sa one whole phrase. The final part is the dependent clause, which is the verb conjugated in the subjunctive. For instance, the sentence "I doubt that he might (ever) buy the house" would become "Dudo que compre la casa."
- To conjugate in the subjunctive, take the yo form of the verb and drop the -o from it. Then, replace it with the appropriate ending.
- For -ar verbs, the endings are: -e, -es, -e, -emos, -éis, and -en. For instance, the word "hablar" would become "hable."
- For -er and -ir verbs, the endings are: -a, -as, -a, -amos, -áis, and -an. For instance, the words "comer" and "vivir" would become "coma" and "viva."
- To conjugate in the subjunctive, take the yo form of the verb and drop the -o from it. Then, replace it with the appropriate ending.
Sample Conjugation Charts
Doc:Comer Conjugation,Hablar Conjugation,Ser Conjugation
Tips
- Participles are basically the adjective form of the verb. They have special conjugations. But as for the regular, it follows as -ado for -ar and -ido for -er and -ir verbs.
- Do not mistaken the word tú (personal pronoun, stressed) and tú- which means "you" - (informal, stressed) with tu possessive, which means "your."
Warnings
- Watch out for stress marks; they can confuse one tense from another.
- Practice conjugation. Never wing a test that's introducing a new tense and expect to remember all these different changes.
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