La Gramatica

Lesson #2
Verb Conjugation
What is a verb?
Its an action word. Sometimes its not an
obvious action its a state of being. Some
examples of action words we have learned so
far in Spanish:
Obvious Actions Not Obvious
estoy I am
come escucha soy I am
llora dice es is
corre se re est - is
grita cuenta necesita
cuida viene tiene
vive quiere

Verbs are very important! Without them,
you do NOT have a sentence.
Because we are telling lots of stories which are
usually about other people, we started using
verbs only in the he/she form meaning
someone else is doing the action.
However, its not always someone else doing the
action.
Sometimes its you, I or even we or another
plural group doing the action.
So time to expand our conversation to include
others!
Verb Conjugation
The process of changing a verb to match WHO
is DOING the action is called conjugating a
verb.
This is a new idea in Spanish. Verbs are NOT
masculine or feminine like nouns. They also
do NOT become plural by adding an s.
The ending of the verb changes depending on
the subject who or what is doing the action.
Changing a verbs ending to match the subject
Every verb has a beginning or a title. We call
that the verbs infinitive or original form.
The original form of the verb helps us with
what the verb means, not who is doing the
action.
All verb infinitives will end with ar, er or
ir.
Examples:
necesitar (to need) escuchar (to listen)
correr (to run) comer (to eat)
vivir (to live) escribir (to write)
Verb Ending Patterns
Each type of verb follows an easy
to remember pattern for endings

Verbs ending in ar
Yo (I) -o
T (you) -as
l / Ella (he/she) -a (just drop the r)

Nosotros/as (we) -amos
Ellos/as (they) -an
Ustedes (all of you) -an
Lets see conjugating in action!
Escuchar = to listen
Yo escucho = I listen
T escuchas = you listen
l escucha = he listens
Ella escucha = she listens

Nosotros/as escuchamos = we listen
Ellos/as escuchan = they listen
Ustedes escuchan = you all listen
Verbs ending in er
Yo (I) -o
T (you) -es
l / Ella (he/she) -e (just drop the r)

Nosotros/as (we) -emos
Ellos/as (they) -en
Ustedes (all of you) -en

comer = to eat

Yo como = I eat
T comes = you eat
l come = he eats
Ella come = she eats

Nosotros/as comemos = we eat
Ellos/as comen = they eat
Ustedes comen = you all eat

Verbs ending in ir
this gets a little more tricky look carefully at endings
Yo (I) -o
T (you) -es
l / Ella (he/she) -e (drop the r, change I to e)

Nosotros/as (we) -imos (keep the I in)
Ellos/as (they) -en
Ustedes (all of you) -en

vivir = to live

Yo vivo = I live
T vives = you live
l vive = he lives
Ella vive = she lives

Nosotros/as vivimos = we live
Ellos/as viven = they live
Ustedes viven = you all live

Practicamos!
What do the following mean?
1. Los estudiantes necesitan papel.
2. Comes muchos dulces?
3. Corremos en la clase de educacion fisica.
4. Yo le grito a la oveja cuando no corre.

Put the following into Spanish:
The kids (nios) listen..
I tell jokes
We dont cry..