Verb Conjugation

Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Verb Tenses offers you not only hundreds of verbs with their particular conjugations, but also lets you know both when and why a particu- lar verb should be used: You are given social, philosophical, and linguistic reasons and applications for the use of verbs.

The Spanish word for tense, in the grammatical sense, is tiempo, which is also the Spanish word for “time.” The philosophical and psychological aspects of time, so central to working with the tenses, unfortunately are often overlooked. To take something so rich as language—the vehicle of thought—and pare it down to its technical particu- lars is to take something that is beautiful and diminish it.

My experience with students of Spanish has taught me that the difficulty of the task before them is rarely what determines either the level of interest or the degree of success. What I have learned is that a step-by-step, logical approach—one that includes clear explanations and reasons for learning Spanish well—intrigues the learner. Interest and secure understanding—not ease and surface performance—are the genuine guar- antors of success.

As you begin your study of verb tenses in Spanish, it is important to understand the basic terminology relating to verbs and their formation.

In Spanish, there are six different verb endings for each verb tense, corresponding to the six subject pronoun groups.

Contents

1. THE PRESENT TENSE

1. Conjugation of regular verbs
2. Ser and estar
3. Hay
4. Tener
5. The personal
6. Common irregular verbs
7. Saber and conocer
8. Conocer
9. Stem-changing verbs
10. Irregular verb groups
11. Reflexive verbs
12. Verbs like gustar
13. The present progressive

2. THE PAST TENSES, THE FUTURE TENSE, THE CONDITIONAL TENSE, AND THE PRESENT AND PAST PERFECT TENSES

1. The preterite tense
2. The imperfect tense
3. The future tense
4. The conditional tense
5. The present perfect tense
6. The past perfect tense

3. THE IMPERATIVE, THE SUBJUNCTIVE,
THE FUTURE AND CONDITIONAL PERFECT TENSES, AND
THE PASSIVE VOICE

1. The imperative
2. The present subjunctive
3. The imperfect subjunctive
4. The future perfect tense
5. The conditional perfect tense
6. The present perfect subjunctive
7. The pluperfect subjunctive
8. The passive voice