Spanish verbs often cause a great deal of confusion among English-speaking students.

Like in other languages derived from Latin, Spanish verbs undergo various modifications depending on the person, mood and tense of the conjugation.

This means that an Anglo-Saxon learner, for example, has to learn many more tenses and verb conjugations than in his or her native language.

However, studying verbs need not be a difficult or frustrating task.

Spanish Express has prepared a verb booklet which, in a simple and didactic way, teaches you everything you need to know about verbs, making the learning process more user-friendly.

Do you want to know more about Spanish verbs? Read on!

Spanish verbs

Verbs are a fundamental part of most languages. They allow us to express actions, states and processes, and are essential for communicating in all circumstances.

In Spanish, verbs are conjugated in different tenses, moods and persons to indicate the subject and the time at which the action is performed. Verbs are an important part of a sentence and are used in combination with other elements, such as nouns, adjectives and adverbs, to create complex sentences

The conjugation of Spanish verbs

Conjugation is the process of changing the form of the verb to match the subject and the time in which the action takes place. There are six verb tenses in Spanish: present, past, future, preterite imperfect, preterite perfect simple and preterite pluperfect. Each verb tense has different forms for each grammatical person (yo, tú, él/ella/ustedes, nosotros/nosotras, vosotros/vosotras, ellos/ellas/ustedes).

To conjugate a verb in Spanish, you take the verb stem and add the corresponding endings for each verb tense and person. For example, the verb “hablar” in the present indicative is conjugated like this:

• yo hablo
• tú hablas
• él/ella/usted habla
• nosotros/nosotras hablamos
• vosotros/vosotras habláis
• ellos/ellas/ustedes hablan

It is important to note that some irregular verbs have special forms that do not follow the general rules of conjugation. For example, the verb “to be” has irregular forms in almost all verb tenses:

• yo soy
• tú eres
• él/ella/usted es
• nosotros/nosotras somos
• vosotros/vosotras sois
• ellos/ellas/ustedes son

Spanish verb tenses

Verb tenses are forms that indicate when the action or process of the verb takes place. In Spanish there are three basic verb tenses: present, past and future. Each of these verb tenses can be broken down into different tenses, which creates an even greater variety of verb tenses.

Verb tenses can be classified into two categories: simple tenses and compound tenses. Simple tenses indicate an action that occurs at a specific moment in time, while compound tenses indicate an action that has occurred before another moment in time. In turn, each verb tense can be conjugated in a variety of ways to express different actions.

The verb modes in Spanish

In addition to the verb tenses, Spanish verbs are also conjugated in different verb moods. These modes indicate the speaker’s purpose or attitude towards the action. The three verb modes in Spanish are the indicative, the subjunctive and the imperative.

• The indicative mood is used to indicate real, concrete actions. For example, “I eat an apple” indicates a real action that is happening in the present moment.
• The subjunctive mood is used to express desires, emotions, doubts or uncertainties. For example, “I hope you will come to the party” indicates a wish or a hope, not an actual action that is happening in the present moment.
• The imperative mood is used to give orders or make requests. For example, “Come here!” is a direct command.

Do you want to know more about Spanish verbs?

Spanish Express offers you the Spanish Lyngo Gym, a space where you will find interesting resources for self-learning Spanish.

One of these resources is the verb notebook, an important reference and practice tool to consolidate your knowledge. 📓

You can take the notebook with you wherever you go, so you will always have it at hand in case you need it. 😀

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