Lesson 4: The Present Tense of Regular Verbs

The Spanish person system; subject pronouns.

• The difference between tú and usted is very significant. Tú, sometimes called "the familiar form" of the second person, is used between friends. This may include author and reader, if the author wishes to imply the reader is a friend ("dear reader," "gentle reader"). It is always used between children and between lovers, usually among family members and colleagues at work, and in prayer. Tú is also used in addressing a subordinate: a servant, child, or animal.

  Usted is derived from vuestra merced, "your grace" (although most Spanish speakers are unaware of this). It is used to show respect: with people one does not know, in business settings, between professional and client, sometimes in very formal families. A rule of thumb is: tú is the equivalent of calling someone by their first name in English. Just as addressing someone by the first name can cause offense, the too-casual use of tú can also.

  Usted is sometimes used to emphasize that the speakers are not friends, are wary of each other, or are conscious of social class. It is always used to address anyone of higher status (a teacher, doctor, king, judge, etc.). Usted is in general somewhat less used than previously, especially in Spain and in environments where social class is rejected, as in Cuba.

• Vosotros and vosotras are common in Spain, but rarely used in Spanish America. They are seldom seen in writing, except in reports of speeches and in fiction. In Spanish America, ustedes is the general plural.
• In parts of Central and South America there is another familiar singular subject pronoun, vos, with different verb endings in the present tense. It is rarely seen in writing, other than in fiction.
• Note that Spanish has no subject pronoun meaning it.
• Nosotras and vosotras are feminine plural forms, used only for all-female groups. They are unique to Spanish, among the Romance languages.

Verb stems and verb endings.

• All Spanish verbs consist of two parts, a stem and an ending.
  • With the verb cantar (to sing), cant is the stem, and ar is the ending. With the verb bailaron (they danced), bail is the stem, and aron is the ending. For the remainder of this lesson, a vertical bar | will be used to mark the division between the stem and the ending.
  • Many different endings can be applied to a single stem. These endings adapt the verb for specific purposes, and give the reader additional information. The stem cant can be combined with endings a, ad, áis, amos, an, ando, ar, as, aste, asteis, e, éis, emos, en, er, es, o, ó, and others.
  • Note that all endings begin with a vowel.
• Verbs and the dictionary.
  • When dictionaries of Spanish were first constructed, centuries ago, a decision was made to include verbs under the infinitive form. The infinitive is one of the two forms (the gerund or present participle is the other) which are not "limited" to a specific person and number. "Infinitive" means "unlimited." The forms which are associated with a specific person and number are called "conjugated" verb forms. Thus, "conjugations" are the tables of endings that a given verb family uses.
    • Students sometimes think, when infinitives are taught first, that the infinitive is a "master" or "root" form. This is not correct. Historically, the infinitive is derived from the conjugated forms.
  • Forms other than the infinitive are never included in Spanish-only dictionaries. Only recently have some Spanish-English dictionaries started to include irregular conjugated verb forms.
  • In order to look up a verb and find its meaning, you first need to determine that it is a verb, and then create its infinitive.
    • One of the most confusing features of Spanish dictionaries, for the student of Spanish, is that they include nouns related to verbs, but do not include verb forms which are identical. For example, cant|o is the ending o combined with the stem cant. As a verb, it means "I sing." However, canto is also a noun meaning "chant," as in canto gregoriano, Gregorian chant. If you look up canto, or any other of the hundreds or thousands of verbs which have noun homonyms, you will find the noun meaning, but nothing to inform you that cant|o is also a verb form. You are unfortunately on your own for this task.
  • All Spanish textbooks, and all learning aids I have seen, are structured to move from the infinitive to the other forms. In other words, you are taught how to take a given infinitive and derive other verb forms from it. A unique feature of this course is that rather than moving from the infinitive, we will move toward the infinitive. You will learn how to arrive at the infinitive from any other verb form, so as to look a verb up. You will also learn how to distinguish verb forms from related nouns.
• The function and meaning of verb endings.
  • The verb ending tells you what tense the verb is, in the same way that the -ed on the verb walked tells you that it is the past tense.
  • The ending also tells you the person and number of the subject. Verbs have different endings depending on the person and number of the subject. Each tense has a separate set of these endings. The ending tells you what the tense of the verb is, and often what its subject is. (It is vital to know what the subject of the sentence is.)
• In Spanish a subject pronoun is not usually used if the verb ending makes the subject clear.
  • With first and second person singular verbs, the ending always identifies the subject (it can only be yo or tú).
    • Habl|o - the -o ending indicates that the subject of the verb is yo ("I"). Since it is clear and unambiguous, using the pronoun yo with the verb is not required, and has taken on a suggestion of emphasis ("I talk").
  • With first and second person plural verbs, the ending usually identifies the subject, although the verb ending alone cannot specify whether nosotros or nosotras, vosotros or vosotras is the subject.
  • With third person verbs, a single verb ending serves for él, ella, and usted (he, she, it, or you singular). In the plural, a single ending serves ellos, ellas, and ustedes (they or you plural). Therefore, the subject is not as clear from the ending as it is with the first and second person.

    The subject pronoun may be omitted with third person verbs only if the subject is clear and unambiguous without it. For example, if the verb person and number continues without change from a preceding sentence, the subject is assumed to be unchanged also. When the subject of the verb is not clear from the context, a subject pronoun (or noun) is required to avoid ambiguity.

• A subject pronoun which is present, even though the subject is unambiguous without it, serves to emphasize the subject. Since Hablo can only mean "I speak," Yo habl|o emphasizes that I am speaking.
• There is no requirement in Spanish that a subject precede the verb. The subject frequently follows the verb.
  • Canta María canciones flamencas. ("María sings flamenco songs." Note that the singular verb ending cant|a tells you that the subject is the singular María and not the plural canciones.)
  • Habla Pedro el español. ("Pedro speaks Spanish." Although both "Pedro" and "el español" are singular, "Spanish speaks Pedro" would not make sense.)

Verb groupings (conjugations). Spanish verbs can be divided into two main groups, called conjugations. The First Conjugation consists of verbs whose infinitive ends in -ar. The Second Conjugation consists of verbs whose infinitive ends in -er or -ir. Each group has a separate set of endings for the present tense. The reason they are placed into groups is that the endings for each group are different.

• While traditionally the -er and -ir groups are taught as separate conjugations, the -er verbs he second conjugation and the -ir verbs the third. However, they are so similar that in this course they are taught together. -Er and -ir verbs differ only in the first and second persons plural of the present tense.
• Verbs do not have genders. The use of -o, -a, -os, etc. in verb endings has no relation to the gender of the subject.

• Endings of the present tense of a first conjugation verb, hablar (to speak)

  	Singular		Plural
  	Stem + Ending	Possible Subjects	Stem + Ending	Possible Subjects
  1st person	hablo	yo	hablamos	nosotros, nosotras
  2nd person	hablas	tú	habláis	vosotros, vosotras
  3rd person	habla	él, ella, usted; any singular noun	hablan	ellos, ellas, ustedes; any plural noun

• Endings of the present tense of a second conjugation verb, comer (to eat)

  	Singular		Plural
  	Stem + Ending	Possible Subjects	Stem + Ending	Possible Subjects
  1st person	como	yo	comemos (for -ir verbs, the ending is -imos)	nosotros, nosotras
  2nd person	comes	tú	coméis (for -ir verbs, the ending is -ís)	vosotros, vosotras
  3rd person	come	él, ella, usted; any singular noun	comen	ellos, ellas, ustedes; any plural noun

Meaning of the present tense. The Spanish present translates the English present progressive and present emphatic (hablo = I speak, I am speaking, I do speak). In a question, such as "Do you speak Russian?," the "do...speak" combination is also translated as the simple present. When translating into English, use the English form which is most appropriate.

Finding infinitives. The infinitive must first be reconstructed in order to find a verb's meaning in a dictionary. For most verbs, one simple removes the ending and replaces it with the infinitive ending (-ar, -er or -ir). Some verbs require adjustments in the stem.

• Removing the ending of present tense verbs.
  • Verbs ending in -as, a, amos, -áis, -an: remove the ending and replace it with -ar.
  • Verbs ending in -es, -e, -emos or -imos, -éis or -ís, -en: remove the ending and replace it with either -er or -ir. You will have to check both possibilities, but only one will be correct.
  • Verbs ending in -o: since -o is an ending for both -ar and -er/-ir verbs, there are some cases in which more than one possible infinitive can be created. For example, par|o could be from the verbs par|ar (to stop) or par|ir (to give birth). There are not many such pairs of verbs, and usually only one infinitive can be formed.
    Other such pairs are cre|ar (to create) - cre|er (to believe); fund|ar (to found, create, or establish) - fund|ir (to melt or cast metal, what is done in a foundry); ment|ar (to mention) - ment|ir (to lie); mor|ar (to dwell) - mor|ir (to die); pod|ar (to prune a plant) - pod|er (to be able); sal|ar (to add sal, salt) - sal|ir (to leave); sent|ar (to seat) - sent|ir (to feel).

• Verbs with Stem Changes. All verbs require removing the ending and replacing it with the infinitive ending. In addition, if a diphthong (double vowel) in found in the stressed syllable of the verb, to find the infinitive the double vowel must be replaced with a single one. In a small number of cases, an -i- in the stressed syllable must be replaced with an -e-. Link to Chapter 2, How to Find a Word's Stressed Syllable.
  • If the verb has a -ue- in the stressed syllable, change it to an o to find the infinitive. For example, the infinitive of puedo is poder (to be able); duerme > dormir (to sleep); muere > morir (to die).
    • There is one verb in which the -ue- changes to a u: the verb jugar (to play; to gamble).
  • If the verb has a -ie- in the stressed syllable, change it to an e to find the infinitive. For example, the infinitive of tiene is tener (to have); the infinitive of cierra is cerrar (to close).
  • If the verb has an -i- in the stressed syllable, sometimes (not always) it must be changed to an -e- to find the infinitive. This change takes place with -ir verbs only. For example, the infinitive of piden is pedir (to request). Infinitives you might form without this change, pidir, pider, or pidar, do not exist. The infinitive of dices is decir (to say). However, the infinitive of hilo is hilar (to spin thread). Neither hilir, helir, hiler, nor heler exist. Hilo could not change to -e- to form the -ar verb helar (to freeze), because the -i- >-e- change only occurs with -ar verbs. The only possible infinitive one can derive from the form hilo is hilar.

    This arriving at the correct meaning by a process of elimination of other possibilities is in fact common in Spanish. With experience, the process becomes automatic.

  • The changes -ie- to -e- and -ue- to -o- are also found with nouns. Being aware of these changes can help you guess the meaning of nouns:
    • puerto (port), puerta (door) > English port, portal
    • fuente (fountain) > English font, fountain
    • cuenta (counting, an account) > English count
    • piedra (stone) > Latin root petr- (as in petrify)
    • bueno (good) > Latin root bon, as in bonanza, bonbon, bon appétit, bona fide.
• With the -o ending only, there are a few instances in which the concluding consonant of the stem must be changed to write the same sound before the different vowel of the infinitive ending. For example, the infinitive of venzo is vencer (to conquer). Keep in mind that the sound is unchanging; it is the written representation of the sound which varies, depending on the following vowel. This type of change will be discussed further when dealing with the subjunctive.

Exercise. Find the infinitive and meaning of the following present tense forms. Which ones have English cognates?

Note that the forms marked with asterisks are nouns as well as verb forms. In isolation these words could be either a noun or a verb. In a sentence, the context will tell you whether you have a noun (preceded by an article, for example), or a verb form (which will have a subject). Remember that Spanish dictionaries include only the noun and the infinitive of the verb. Do not be distracted by a noun homonym if you are looking for a verb form.

A cognate is a word of similar but not identical form, with a similar meaning. Some of the words have several English cognates, some have none.

The division between stem and ending is marked for items 1-10. For the rest, see if you can make that distinction.

1. acuest|a
2. corrij|o
3. *cuent|a
4. *cuest|a
5. duerm|o
6. encuentr|a
7. impid|e
8. jueg|an
9. muev|es
10. piens|an
11. prefiero
12. quiero
13. riñen
14. *río
15. sienta
16. siente
17. sigo
18. sirvo
19. *sueño
20. vienes
21. yergue (the initial y functions as an i in the dipthong)

Link to the answers to this exercise.

This page Copyright © 1998 Daniel Eisenberg. Please report errors or omissions: daniel.eisenberg@bigfoot.com. ¡Mil gracias!