The Present Tense - Regular AR verbs

Verbs whose infinitives end in AR are, logically enough, called AR verbs.  Here are a few:

andar - to walk
bailar - to dance
cantar - to sing
doblar - to fold, to turn
estudiar - to study
gritar - to yell
hablar - to speak, to talk
lograr - to achieve
manejar - to drive, to handle
nadar - to swim
patinar - to skate
tirar - to throw, to pull

Today we'll learn how to conjugate these verbs into the present indicative.  The word present indicates the tense, and the word indicative tells us the mood.  The tense establishes the time frame for our verb, and the mood indicates the purpose behind the communication.  Verbs in the indicative mood are real or factual in nature, and students of Spanish like to study them first before moving on to other moods.  Ok, let's learn how to conjugate AR verbs into the present indicative.

You remember from the posting on subject pronouns that these pronouns are arranged into a 3X2 grid:

                yo                                   nosotros / nosotras

                tú                                    vosotros / vosotras

                usted                               ustedes
                él                                     ellos
                ella                                  ellas

Each of pronoun groupings has its own ending for AR verbs.  Here they are:


                yo  -  o                             nosotros / nosotras  -  amos

                tú  -  as                           vosotros / vosotras  -  áis

                usted                                 ustedes
                él         - a                        ellos  -  an
                ella                                   ellas

So let's conjugate our first AR verb.  I will start with bailar (to dance).  We drop the ending and we are left with the stem (bail).  To the stem we add the endings from above:

              yo bailo                              nosotros / nosotras bailamos

              tú bailas                             vosotros / vosotras bailáis

              usted                                  ustedes
              él        baila                       ellos        bailan
              ella                                    ellas

From this point forward, I will assume you know the pronouns.  I will write out the verb inflections whenever we conjugate as follows:

              bailo                bailamos
              bailas               bailáis
              baila                bailan

So now we can create simple sentences with our AR verbs:

Yo bailo.   I dance.
Ellas bailan bien.   They dance well.
Nosotros bailamos todos los días.   We dance every day.

So now you can pick any regular AR you like and conjugate it to the present tense:

Yo estudio en la biblioteca.   I study at the library.
Usted habla español.  You speak Spanish.
Nosotros nadamos los domingos.  We swim on Sundays.
Ustedes cantan muy bien.   You (all) sing very well.

The possibilities are endless.  Once you get to the point where you can conjugate well, your ability to communicate smoothly will greatly increase.  Now there is one other thing I need to mention.  In English, our verbs don't change a lot when we conjugate, so we use subject pronouns all the time to assure we know who the subject is.  In Spanish, however, the verb endings change frequently, so we don't always need to use the subject pronouns.  So I can say...

                             Hablo español. (I speak Spanish.)

... and I don't need to use the subject pronoun yo.  The same could be said for nosotros, tú, and vosotros:

                            Bailas bien.   You dance well.
                            Hablamos ruso por teléfono.   We speak Russian on the phone.
                            Cantáis a menudo.  You (all) sing often.

The 2nd person formal / 3rd person forms on the bottom of our grid (eg. - habla, hablan) have three possible subjects each, so you are more likely to use subject pronouns with them:

                           Usted baila bien.    You dance well.
                           Ellas cantan mañana.  The sing tomorrow.

So does that mean that you never have to use the first and second person pronouns (yo, tú, nosotros / as, vosotros / as)?  Not at all.  There are times when you will want to use them for either emphasis or clarity:

 - Jorge, en la función mañana, ¿quién canta y quién baila?
 - Pues, yo canto y tú bailas.

(Jorge, at the show tomorrow, who is singing and who is dancing?
Well, I am singing and you are dancing.)

Congratulations.  Now you know how to form the present indicative of regular AR verbs in Spanish.  Next posting we will discuss the present indicative of ER and IR verbs.  ¡Hasta la próxima!

Introduction to Spanish Verbs - The Infinitive

You all learned about verbs in school.  They are words that express actions or states of existence.  A verb in its most basic form is called an infinitive.  In English, the infinitive typically starts with the word "to" (to jump, to sing, to eat, to cough, and so on).  In Spanish, we have three types of infinitives - AR, ER, and IR.  An infinitive is classified according to its last two letters:

AR - manejar, hablar, cantar
ER - comer, hacer, ver
IR - abrir, recibir, prohibir

Each infinitive is divided into two parts - a stem and an ending:

                                   habl     ar
                                         stem        ending

Uses of the Infinitive

The infinitive often serves as the starting point for verb conjugation in Spanish.  Conjugation is the act of inflecting (changing the form of) a verb so that it may agree with a subject.  There are numerous verb inflections in Spanish, depending on the tense and mood one employs, and many of them start with the infinitive.  An infinitive by itself is not usually associated with a specific subject, but it will frequently pair up with an auxiliarly verb (helping verb) that is conjugated:

Puedo nadar.                  I can swim.

Quiero comer.                I want to eat.

Debo estudiar más.         I should study more.

How one conjugates a verb is a subject for subsequent postings.  Suffice it to say that in many cases you start by by dropping the ending of the infinitive you want to use, and then you add different endings to the stem in order to inflect your verb into a variety of tenses and moods.  Infinitives get used a lot in everyday language, both for conjugation and with auxiliarly verbs, but their usefulness doesn't end there.

Spanish commands can be pretty complex.  We often see the infinitive used in place of standard commands when the message is aimed at the general public, rather than at a specific person or group of people:

No tirar basura.                            Do not throw garbage.

No estacionar.                               No parking.

Llamar después de las 3:00.         Call after three.

In English, when you want to nominalize (change into a noun) a verb, you use a gerund.  Gerunds are words ending in "ing" that we use as nouns.  If you want to nominalize a verb in Spanish, just use the infinitive:

Ver es creer.                                  Seeing is believing.

Vivir aquí es costoso.                    Living here is costly.

It is quite common to see infinitives after a preposition:

Ella quiere salir esta noche sin cenar.

She wants to go out tonight without eating supper.

Infinitives are used after the contraction al to mean upon...

Al llegar a casa, Pedro se acostó inmediatamente.

Upon arriving home, Pedro went straight to bed.

Infinitives will sometimes be associated with a subject when one wants to express surprise or indignation:

¡Esquiar en esa montaña yo! ¡Ni en sueño!

Me ski on that mountain!  Not a chance!

I hope that gives you a general idea of the usefulness of infinitives in Spanish.  You should learn as many infinitives as you can, and absorb them with the same voracity that would with any vocabulary term.   I think the next logical step is to discuss the present tense in the next posting.  We'll start with the easy stuff, regular AR, ER, and IR verbs in the present indicative, then go on from there.  ¡Hasta la próxima!

Subject Pronouns

Let's talk about subject pronouns in English before we move on to Spanish. You will hear the term "person" used a lot when referring to pronouns. The "first person" is the person speaking (so "I" am the first person). Since "I" am just one person, I call the pronoun "I" the first person singular subject pronoun. The second person singular is the person to whom I am speaking (in other words - "you").  The third person singular is the person or thing about whom I am speaking (in other words - "he," she," or "it").  The first person plural ("we") involves at least two people and I am one of them.  The second person plural ("you" plural) involves two or more people to whom I am speaking.  Down south the second person plural form "y'all" is pretty common.  Finally, the third person plural ("they") involves the people (or things) about whom I am speaking.

I like to use a 3 X 2 grid (as do a lot of text books) when listing pronouns:

                           singular                           plural
1st person                I                                    we
2nd person             you                                 you
3rd person           he, she, it                          they

We will use a similar grid when dealing with Spanish subject pronouns.  Here they are:

                          singular                            plural
first person           yo                          nosotros / nosotras

second person       tú (familiar)          vosotros / vosotras (familiar, Spain only)
                           usted (formal)          ustedes (formal and familiar, except in
                                                                        Spain where it is considered formal)

third person          él (he)                    ellos / ellas
                             ella (she)

The first thing you might notice is that there are two ways to say "we" (nosotros / nosotras).  It's a gender thing.  If everyone in the group is female then you use nosotras.  If one male is in the group the pronoun becomes masculine (nosotros).  The same thing is true for vosotros / vosotras and ellos / ellas.  Yeah, I know it's unfair.  I was once in a class in Salamanca with 23 girls.  Since I was present in the class, the professor had to use the masculine pronoun vosotros whenever he addressed the group.

You might also have noticed there are four ways to say "you" in Spanish.  The singular pronoun tú is familiar.  That is to say you would use it with family and friends.  The formal singular pronoun usted is used with people you just met (especially if they are older than you), your teachers, elders, or anyone for whom you feel you should show respect.  When in doubt, it is safer to use usted.  A native speaker might be offended if you addressed him or her with tú.  Most people who work, play, or study together won't stay with usted for very long.  Most native speakers will let you know when it's time to tutear (change to the tú pronoun).

I should also mention that in some Central and South American countries they prefer to use the pronoun vos instead of tú.  The verb conjugations for vos will often resemble those used with vosotros / vosotras, but bear in mind they are not the same thing.  Vosotros / as is a plural pronoun involving more than one person, whereas vos is singular.  I will be using tú in this blog and not vos.  It is the pronoun I am familiar with, and it is universally understood.

Regarding the plural "you" pronouns, it really depends on where you are as to which ones you use.  In Spain, vosotros / as is the familiar "you" plural, whereas ustedes is the formal pronoun.  However, vosotros / as is used only in Spain.  Pretty much everywhere else in the world ustedes is the only second person plural pronoun used.  Since the majority of the Spanish-speaking world doesn't use vosotros / as, many textbooks don't even teach it.  Nevertheless, I will include it in this blog (after all, it does exist in Spain, the mother country of Spanish, so it does merit a little respect).  Still, you should keep in mind that whenever you want to say "y'all" in Spanish, you can use ustedes anywhere you go and you will be fine.

The pronouns usted and ustedes evolved from the expression vuestra merced (your grace), an expression of respect used with nobles and royalty.  Now the expression "your grace" is really a third person subject, not second person (just like say "your book" would be third person since we are talking about the book and not to it).  So too is the expression vuestra merced, which uses third person verb forms for the same reason.  So as the expression evolved into the pronouns usted and ustedes, they kept using the third person verb forms.  For this reason, they are typically grouped with the third person pronouns when shown in the grid:

                        singular                                       plural
                            yo                                    nosotros / nosotras

                            tú                                     vosotros / vosotras

                         usted                                        ustedes
                           él                                           ellos
                           ella                                        ellas

The verb conjugations for usted, él, and ella will always be the same (so too for ustedes, ellos, and ellas).  Nevertheless, you need to remember that usted and ustedes are second person pronouns ("you") even though the get grouped in with the third person forms.

Usted es alto.        You are tall.
El es alto.              He is tall.
Ella es alta.           She is tall.

One more thing, the word "it" as a subject is not expressed.  The pronoun ello ("it") technically can be used as a subject, but in my 30 plus years of experience with Spanish I have never heard anyone use it that way.  You're much more likely to hear ello used as the object of a preposition, referring to a substantive whose gender cannot easily be determined.  There are demonstrative pronouns (this, that, etc.) that can be used as a subject if you really feel the need, but in general the subject "it" is not expressed in Spanish.

¿El coche?  Está en el garaje.       The car?  It is in the garage.

Students will look up the word "it" in the dictionary and find lo and la.  They will then try to use them as subject pronouns:

WRONG ----->   Lo está en el garaje.

This is a no-no.   Lo and la are object pronouns, not subject pronouns.  We will talk about object pronouns at a later date.  Don't try to use lo / la as subjects.  You'll just confuse the listener.

Well that's it for now on subject pronouns.  I welcome any comments and questions you may have.   More to come...

Introduction to the Spanish Grammar Guide

Hi.  My name is Thomas Febrey.  I have been a Spanish instructor for the last 25 years, both at the secondary and university levels.  I have a Bachelors degree in Spanish Liberal Arts and a Masters degree in Spanish Literature.  I studied at the University of Salamanca and served as a group supervisor at the Center for Bilingual Multicultural Studies in Cuernavaca, Mexico.  Having been a Spanish teacher for so many years,  I have come to understand what comes easily to students and what doesn't.  One problem, especially for college students, is the fact that material gets covered so fast that one doesn't really have time to assimilate what he or she is learning.  I am sure many students must wonder how nice it would be to have a handy resource that explains the variety of Spanish topics in a easy, clear, and thorough manner.  Well, here it is.  The purpose of this blog is to help you not only succeed, but to thrive as you endeavor to learn Spanish.  Some of these topics will be easy, some will be complex.  I promise to go through each and every one as clearly and completely as possible.

So here is my first piece of wisdom.  Learning vocabulary is very important.  With a deep vocabulary, you can understand quite a bit, even if you haven't mastered all the different verb inflections in Spanish.  The value of vocabulary should not be underestimated.  When your teacher gives you a list of words to learn, start working on it right away.  Flash cards are great because you can carry them around with you and test yourself throughout the day.  Whenever possible, put the Spanish word on one side of the card and a picture of what the word represents on the other.  The idea is to move away from the English word and have the Spanish word "take over" for it.  For instance, you might write el árbol on one side of a flash card, then draw a picture of a tree on the other.  Yes, it would be easier to write "the tree" on the other side, but your brain will assimilate the Spanish word faster if it is associated with an image, rather than another word.  Also, use the definite articles (el / la) with Spanish nouns.  Unlike English, all Spanish nouns have gender, so learning the article will help you to learn the noun's gender.

Next time we'll talk a little about subject pronouns.  ¡Hasta la próxima!