Spanish is a romance language because it originated from Latin roots and is known to come from the country of Spain. It is spoken in hundreds of countries all over the world and increasingly in places bordering Spanish-speaking countries. In Spanish, verbs are conjugated based on the subject executing the verb and ending of the verb when in infinitive. The verb is stripped of the verb ending and then a new ending is added that signifies the tense. In all tenses, there are a few verbs that conjugate differently but most verbs follow the same general conjugation pattern.
Instructions
1. Start with the infinitive form of the verb. For Spanish, the infinitive is a basic form of a verb that lacks a tense, does not have a subject and is preceded by the word "to." The infinitive also still contains the verb ending. For example, buscar, comprender, and escribir -- in English: to search for, to comprehend or understand, and to write, respectively -- are in their infinitive forms.
2. Identify the subject; that is, who or what is performing the action. Who is actually doing the verb? For example, if the verb is buscar, or to search for, who is searching for something? The subjects in Spanish are: yo, which means I; tú, you; el, ella and usted, or he, she and it; nosotros(as), or we, us (use the --as ending instead of --os ending when the subjects being referred to are all female; for a mixed group --female and male -- use --os; vosotros(as), you all, formal; and ellos, ellas, ustedes: they (masculine), they (feminine) and you (plural).
3. Identify the verb ending or stem. In Spanish, there are three verb endings -- -ar, -er and --ir -- most often found at the end of the infinitive of the verb.
4. Remove the stem from the infinitive. This is done so that the new ending can be added. Using the previous examples -- buscar, comprender and escribir -- the verbs should now look like this: busc--, comprend-- and escrib--.
5. Add the appropriate endings for present tense based on the verb ending and the subject. Verbs ending in --ar have one set of present-tense endings and verbs ending in --er and --ir share a similar set of present-tense endings, except for nosotros(as) and vosotros(as). The following endings are listed in the order of yo, tú, el/ella/usted, nosotros(as), vosotros(as) and ellos/ellas/ustedes: -ar: o, as, a, amos, áis, an; and -er/-ir: o, es, e, emos/imos, is/ís, en.
