The present tense in Spanish is an ideal place to start learning Spanish verbs and become familiar with how we conjugate.
Conjugating verbs is what we call the process of taking a verb such as ‘hablar’ (to speak) and adding a particular set of endings to turn it into ‘I talk’ or ‘I will talk’, for example.
Starting point
- Take an infinitive verb such as ‘hablar’.
- Remove the -ar, -er, or -ir ending. In this case, we are left with ‘habl’. This is called your root or stem.
- Add the specific endings from the list below to your root.
Note that the following list of endings follows the standard order of personal pronouns: I, You, He or She, We, You (plural), They.
In the image above, we can see that an -o, is the specific ending for first person (I). If we add the ending to ‘habl’, we create I talk = yo hablo.
If we want to say ‘you talk’, we add an -as instead. Thus, you talk = tú hablas.
Note that the endings we should add to create the present tense, are different depending on whether we are using an -ar, -er, or -ir verb!
Practice 1: Translate
- Yo canto.
- Ellos bailan.
- Tú miras.
- Susana vive.
- Nosotros escribimos.
- Yo aprendo.
- Vosotros dibujáis.
- Pablo enseña.
- Tú comes.
- Yo bebo.
Answers: 1. I sing. 2. They dance. 3. You look. 4. Susana lives. 5. We write. 6. I learn. 7. You (all) draw. 8. Pablo teaches/shows. 9. You eat. 10. I drink.
Practice 2: Write the following verbs
- You live.
- I call.
- We speak.
- They look.
- Carla swims.
- You (all) play.
- We eat.
- I don’t drink.
- Pedro runs.
- We don’t try.
Answers: 1. Tú vives. 2. Yo llamo. 3. Nosotros hablamos. 4. Ellos miran. 5. Carla nada. 6. Vosotros jugáis. 7. Nosotros comemos. 8. Yo no bebo. 9. Pedro corre. 10. Nosotros no intentamos.
Tip: I would recommend starting by memorising the list of endings. Once you can recite these, practice by conjugating lot’s of different verbs. Finally, make sure that you test yourself, as this is the best way to ensure that you have learnt something!