Spanish Verbs

For most beginning students of Spanish, one of the hardest things is understanding verbs. That’s because verbs in Spanish act differently from verbs in English. There are many Spanish verbs (like ser and estar) that convey distinctions in meanings that don’t exist in English! You’ll discover tenses (like the subjunctive) that you never knew existed. Strangest of all, you’ll discover that verbs in Spanish not only contain information about when the action took place (the tense), but also who performed the action (the subject).

Spanish verbs are tough, but this section will help you master them. Before you dive in, you need to know a little vocabulary first.

verb: an action word
subject: who performs the action (e.g., I, he, she, you, we)
tense: past, present, future, etc.
infinitive: the unconjugated form of a verb, such as “ to write,” “ to be,” “ to want,” “ to run.”
conjugation: the process of changing the form of a verb to reflect the desired tense and subject
regular verbs: verbs that follow the “rules” of conjugation
irregular verbs: verbs that break the “rules” of conjugation

Here’s a taste of what you will learn about Spanish verbs. In English, you always have to specify the subject before the verb. For example…

I write. (present tense)
You wrote. (past tense)
We will write. (future tense)

In Spanish, all that information can be contained in a single word. For example, here are the same sentences as the ones above, except in Spanish.

Escribo. (present tense)
Escribiste. (preterite past tense)
Escribiremos. (future tense)

In order to speak Spanish properly, you are going to have to learn how to form those verbs properly, through a process called conjugation.

Are you ready to learn more?

PRESENT TENSE

Introduction to Infinitives and Regular Conjugations
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Irregular Verbs, including TENER
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Stem-Changing Verbs
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Irregular Verbs in the YO Form
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PRESENT TENSE—PRESENT PROGRESSIVE
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FOCUS ON VERBS

Using SER (to be)
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Using IR (to go)
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Using ESTAR (to be)
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ESTAR versus SER
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Using DECIR and DAR
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“To Know”: SABER versus CONOCER
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Using GUSTAR, FALTAR, and QUEDAR
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“To Ask”: PEDIR versus PREGUNTAR
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REFLEXIVE VERBS
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MORE ABOUT INFINITIVES
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PAST TENSE—PRETERITE

Introduction to the Preterite Past
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Irregular Verbs
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More Irregular Verbs
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Short Verbs: DAR, VER, IR, SER
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Verbs that Change Meaning in Different Tenses (part I)
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Verbs that Change Meaning in Different Tenses (part II)
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PAST TENSE—IMPERFECT

Introduction to the Imperfect
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Using More than One Tense in a Sentence
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PAST TENSE—PAST PROGRESSIVE
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FOCUS ON VERBS (ii)

Verbs that Change Meaning in Different Tenses (part I)
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Verbs that Change Meaning in Different Tenses (part II)
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FUTURE TENSE

Introduction to the Future Tense
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Irregular Verbs
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Unusual Ways of Using the Future Tense
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This is just the tip of the iceberg! There's so much more in the Rocket Spanish Premium Edition. If you are really serious about learning to speak Spanish, then you should check out this page right now...

Visit: www.rocketlanguages.com/spanish/premium

About The Editor:
Amy Waterman became fluent in Spanish while living and working in the Andes Mountain region of Ecuador. Her extensive experience in Spanish learning systems led her to formulate the concept behind the Interactive Audio component of Rocket Spanish.

About The Author:
Mauricio Evlampieff, originally from Chile, is a native Spanish speaker who is passionate about his country’s culture, language and heritage. He is also author of the popular RocketSpanish.com. He is best known for his enthusiasm and insights into the language of his homeland, and has shared this love of the Spanish language and culture with students the world over.

His Rocket Spanish Premium Edition product contains a complete interactive audio course designed to get you speaking conversational Spanish in the quickest time possible. You’ll receive four e-books crammed with grammar lessons, useful words and phrases, vocabulary, exercises, and more! It doesn’t end there. You’ll also receive the Rocket Spanish MegaVocab and MegaAudio software games, which you can modify to suit the vocabulary that YOU need to learn. Together, this dynamic and comprehensive Rocket Spanish package will completely transform how you think about learning another language. Learn more at: http://www.rocketspanish.com/premium.