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13. WHAT IS VERB CONJUGATION?
A verb conjugation is a list of the six possible forms of the verb for a particular tense. For each tense, there is one verb form for each of the six persons used as the subject of the verb. (See What is a Subject Pronoun?, p. 30.)
IN ENGLISH Most verbs change very little. Let us look at the various forms of the verb to sing when each of the possible pronouns is the subject.’
Singular 1st person I sing with the music. 2nd person You sing with the music.
r He sings with the music. 3rd person j She sings with the music. It sings with the music.
Plural 1st person We sing with the music. 2nd person You sing with the music. 3rd person They sing with the music.
Conjugating verbs in English is relatively easy because there is only one change in the verb forms; in the 3rd person singular the verb adds an “-5”.
The English verb that changes the most is the verb to be which has three different verb forms in the present: I am, you are, he/she is, we are, you are, they are.
IN SPANISH Verb forms change constantly, and it is therefore necessary to know the form of the verb for each of the six persons in each of the six per- sons in each tense. Memorizing all the forms of all the verbs that exist would be an impossible, endless task. Fortunately, most Spanish verbs belong to one of two categories.
Regular verbs are verbs whose forms follow a regular pattern. Only one example must be memorized and the pattern can then be applied to the other verbs of the same group.
Irregular verbs are verbs whose forms do not follow any regular pat- tern and must be memorized individually.
11n this section we will talk about the present tense only (see What is the Present Tense?, p. 60). Subject
Pay special attention to the subject pronoun in this conjugation of the Spanish verb cantar (to sing). Singular 1st person yo canto 2nd person tü cantas él 3rd person ella } canta ‘I. usted Plural
1st person { nosotros } cantamos nosotras 2nd person { vosotros ]. cantáis vosotras { ellos 3rd person ellas cantan ustedes
Each subject represents the doer of the action of the verb.
1ST PERSON SINGULAR—The “I form” of the verb (the yo form) is used whenever the person speaking is the doer of the action.
Yo canto mucbo. I sing a lot. Notice that yo is not capitalized except as the first word of a sentence. 2ND PERSON SINGULAR—the “you familiar form” of the verb (the tü form) is used whenever the person spoken to (with whom you are on familiar terms, p. 34) is the doer of the action.
Juan, tü cantas muy bien. John, you sing very well. 3RD PERSON SINGULAR—the “he, she, you formal form” of the verb (the él form) is used when the person or thing spoken about is the doer of the action. The 3rd person singular subject can be expressed in one of four ways.
1. by the third person singular masculine pronoun él (he) and the third person singular feminine pronoun ella (she) El canta muy bien. He sings very well.
Ella canta muy bien. She sings very well.
2. by the singular pronoun usted (you) Seńor Gómez, usted canta muy bien. Mr Gómez, you sing very welL
Seńorita Gómez, usted canta muy bien. Miss Gômez, you sing very welL
The pronoun usted is generally abbreviated as Ud. The abbrevia- tion is used far more frequenfly than the entire word. 3. by one proper name Maria canta muy bien. Mary sings very welL
Pedro canta muy bien. Pedro sings very well.
El seńor Garcia canta muy bien. Mr Garcia sings very well.
4. by a singular noun El hombre canta muy bien. The man sings very well.
La nina canta muy bien. The girl sings very well.
El pájaro canta muy bien. The bird sings very welL
The subject pronoun it has no Spanish equivalent. It as a subject is generally not expressed but rather understood as part of the verb. (See What is a Subject Pronoun?, p. 30.) John has a new car It’s (it is) very nice. Juan tiene un coche nuevo. Es muy undo. It is understood as part of the verb es.
1ST PERSON PLURAL—The “we form” of the verb (the nosotros form) is used whenever “I” (the speaker) is one of the doers of the action; that is, whenever the speaker is included in a plural or multiple subject. Nosotros cantamos bien. We sing well. Miguel, Gloria y yo cantamos muy bien.
nosotros Miguel, Gloria and I sing very well. In this sentence Isabel, Gloria and I could be replaced by the pronoun we, so that in Spanish you must use the nosotros form of the verb.
2ND PERSON PLURAL—The “you familiar plural form” of the verb (the vosotros form) is used only in Spain when you are speaking to two or more persons with whom you would use tü individually.
Juan y hi cantáis muy bien. Juan and you sing very well. In this sentence John (whom you would address with the tti form) and you could be replaced by the pronoun you, so that in Spanish you must use the vosotros form of the verb.
Many beginning Spanish textbooks do not emphasize or practice the vosotros form. Your instructor will inform you if you need to learn the vosotros forms of verbs or not.
3RD PERSON PLURAL—The “they or you formal form” of the verb (the ellos form) is used when the persons or things spoken about are the doers of the action. The 3rd person plural subject can be expressed in one of five ways:
1. by the third person plural masculine pronoun ellos (they) and the third person plural feminine pronoun ellas (they)
ElIos cantan muy bien. They sing very welL
ElIas cantan muy bien. They sing very welt 2. by the plural pronoun ustedes (you)
Elena y Francisco, ustedes cantan muy bien. Elena and Francisco, you sing very welt The pronoun ustedes is generally abbreviated as Uds. The abbrevi- ation is used far more frequently than the entire word. 3. by two or more names Isabel, Gloria y Roberto cantan muy bien. I I ellos Isabel, Gloria and Robert sing very welt In this sentence Isabel, Gloria and Robert could be replaced by they so that in Spanish you must use the ellos form of the verb.
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La seńora Gómez y la seńora Jiménez cantan muy bien.
elias Mrs. Gómez and Mrs. Jiménez sing very well. In this sentence Mrs. Gómez and Mrs. Jimënez could be replaced by they so that in Spanish you must use the ellos form of the verb. 4. by two or more singular nouns
La chica y su padre cantan muy bien.
dos The girl and her father sing very welL In this sentence the girl and her father could be replaced by they so that in Spanish you must use the ellos form of the verb.
5. by a plural noun
Las chicas cantan muy bien. The girls sing very well. The subject pronoun they referring to things is generally not expressed but rather understood as part of the verb. (See What is a Subject Pronoun?, p. 30.) Mary has new shoes. They are very nice. Maria tiene zapatos nuevos. Son muy lindos. They is understood as part of the verb son since they refers to a thing.
Verb Form
Let us again look at the conjugation of the same verb to sing, paying special attention to the verb forms. Notice that each of the six persons has a different verb form. However, when two or more pronouns belong to the same person, there is only one verb form. For instance, the 3rd person singular has three pronouns; él, ella, and Ud. but they all have the same verb form: canta.
yo canto tü cantas é 1 ella } canta
44 nosotros cantamos riosotras } vosotros I cantáis vosotros ellos 1 ellas cantan Uds.
The Spanish verb is composed of two pafls.
1. The stem (also called the root) is formed by dropping the last two letters from the infinitive. Infinitive Stem cantar cant- corner corn- vivir v1v-
The stem will usually not change throughout a conjugation. How- ever, in certain verbs called stem-changing verbs, the stem will change in a minor way.
2. The ending changes for each person in the conjugation of regular and irregular verbs. You will know which endings to add when you have established which group the verb belongs to.
Verb Groups
Regular verbs are divided into three groups, also called conjugations. The groups are identified according to the infinitive endings. 1st group 2nd group 3rd group -ar -er -ir
Each of the three verb groups has its own set of endings for each tense (see What is Meant by Tense?, p. 58). You will need to learn the forms of only one sample verb from each group in order to conjugate any regular verb belonging to that group. As an example, let us look more closely at regular -ar verbs, that is, verbs like hablar (to speak) and tomar (to take) that follow the pattern of cantar (to sing) conju- gated above.
1. Identify the verb group by its infinitive endings. hablar -ar verbs tornar
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2. Find the verb stem by removing the infinitive endings. habl- torn-
3. Add the ending that corresponds tathe subject. yo hablo yo tomo hi hablas tü tomas a 1 ella habla ella J to ma Ud. Ud nosotros hablamos flOSO~OS }tomamos vosotros N habláis vosotros } tomáis vosotras J vosotras ellos 1 ellos 1 ellas hablan elias jtoman Uds. The endings for -er and -ir verbs will be different but the process of conjugation is always the same for regular verbs: 1. Identify the group of the verb by its infinitive ending. 2. Find the verb stem. 3. According to the group, add the ending that corresponds to the subject.
Omitting the Subject Pronoun As you can see, in Spanish the verb ending indicates the subject. For instance, hablo can only have yo as a subject. Similarly, the subject of hablas can only be hi; the subject of hablamos, nosotros; the subject of habláis, vosotros. Since you know the subject from the verb form, the subject pronoun is often omitted. hablo — I speak hablas —÷ you speak hablamos -4 we speak hablIis — you speak
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If you do include the subject pronoun, it adds strong emphasis to the subject. Yo canto. —+ 1 sing (but he doesn’t). Nosotros cantamos. -4 We sing (but they don’t). However, in the third person singular and plural it is often necessary to include the pronoun in order to avoid any doubt about who is the subject of the verb. [ 61 babla he speaks habla could be ~ ella habla she speaks ~. Ud. habla you speak ellos hablan they speak hablan could be ellas hablari they speak 1 lids. hablan you speak
The subject pronouns are included to clear up or clarify who is the subject in the above examples.
In many textbooks only the pronoun nosotros (instead of both nosotros and nosotras) will be listed in conjugations of new verbs. Likewise, only vosotros (instead of both vosotros and vosotras) will be listed. |
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