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A verb usually names action in a sentence. |
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The most basic form of a verb is called the infinitive. |
| tells the meaning of the verb without naming any subject or tense | |
| form you would find in a Spanish dictionary | |
| In English,
infinitives usually have the word to in front of them. to swim, to read, to write |
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every Spanish verb
consists of a stem plus an infinitive ending.
tomar = tom + ar beber = beb + er vivir = viv + ir |
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Spanish
infinitives do not have to in front of them only one word always end in -ar, -er, or -ir nadar, leer, escribir |
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verb forms change depending on the subject (the person doing the action)
for example: in English I look, she looks in Spanish there are six forms of the verb in each tense |
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Conjugate means to change the an infinitive form to agree with the
subject
remove the –ar, -er, or –ir add the appropriate ending to the stem each ending goes with a particular subject |
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In Spanish, since the verb endings indicate who is doing the action, the subject pronouns (who does the action) are normally left out. However, the subject pronouns may be used at times for emphasis or clarification. |
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Memorize the endings and correct way to conjugate -ar verbs in the present tense as shown in the grey shaded cells in the table below. |
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In Spanish, the present tense of a verb can be translated into English two different ways (noted in table below). |
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Subject |
Verb ending |
Subject | Verb ending | ||
| person |
Singular |
Plural |
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| 1st | yo | -o | nosotros/as | -amos | |
| 2nd | tú | -as | vosotros/as | -áis | |
| 3rd | él, ella, Ud. | -a | ellos/ellas/Uds. | -an | |
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Spanish |
English |
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