Spanish Grammar Podcast

Regular Verbs: Part II (free mini version)

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The subject of this episode is Regular Verbs, and it is the second of three episodes on this topic.

Remember from the previous lesson that in Spanish, all verbs end in "a-r," "e-r" or "i-r" and that the infinitive form of the verb is conjugated according to the subject of the sentence. In this lesson, you will learn how to conjugate verbs for you (familiar), he, she, you-all (familiar) and they.

To conjugate regular verbs for "tú," drop the ending, and then add "a-s" if it's an a-r verb, or "e-s" if it's an e-r or i-r verb.

For the verb "hablar" you get "hablas."

For "comer" you get "comes."

And for "vivir" get "vives."

tú hablas
tú comes
tú vives

To conjugate regular verbs for "el or ella," drop the ending, and then add "a" if it's an a-r verb, or "e" if it's an e-r or i-r verb.

For the verb "hablar" you get "habla."

For "comer" you get "come."

And for "vivir" you get "vive."

Note that the conjugations for "el" and "ella" are the same as you learned previously for "usted."

él habla, ella habla, usted habla
él come, ella come, usted come
él vive, ella vive, usted vive

Spanish has two ways to say “you-all.” You have already learned that the formal word is “ustedes.” If you are in Latin America, this is all you need, because in Latin America they use "ustedes" in both formal and informal situations. But in Spain, they use the word "vosotros" for informal situations.

To conjugate regular verbs in the "vosotros" form, drop the ending and then add "áis" for a-r verbs, "éis" for e-r verbs, or "ís" for i-r verbs. Note that each of these forms carries a written accent.

vosotros habláis
vosotros coméis
vosotros vivís

Remember, there are two ways to say "they" in Spanish – “ellos” and “ellas.” To conjugate regular verbs in the "ellos" and "ellas" forms, you do the same thing as for the "ustedes" form. Drop the ending and then add "a-n" for a-r verbs or "e-n" for e-r and i-r verbs.

ellos hablan, ellas hablan, ustedes hablan
ellos comen, ellas comen, ustedes comen
ellos viven, ellas viven, ustedes viven

Finally, a quick review of when to use the present tense in Spanish. Use it to describe current conditions:

Ellos hablan inglés y español.
They speak English and Spanish.

Use it to tell what's happening now:

Ustedes estudian español en la universidad.
You-all study Spanish at the university.

Use it to talk about customary or habitual events:

Coméis mucho arroz.
You-all eat a lot of rice.

And finally, use the present tense to refer to the immediate future:

Mañana Juan escribe una carta a su papá.
Tomorrow John will write a letter to his dad.

That wraps up our mini-episode on regular verbs. There is one more episode on this topic.