Introduction to Verbs in Spanish.

Modes of Verbal Tenses in Spanish 

Spanish verbs can be used in three main modes: indicative, subjunctive, and imperative.

• Indicative: Used to express real and concrete actions. For example, “I study Spanish.”

• Subjunctive: Used to express wishes, doubts, hypotheses, or emotions. For example, “I hope you come soon.”

• Imperative: This mode is used to give orders or advice. For example, “Speak more slowly.”
  

Verbal Tenses: Present, Past, and Future 

• Present: Describes an action occurring at the current moment. Example: “I eat.”

• Past: There are various tenses for the past, such as the perfect preterite (“I ate”) and the imperfect (“I was eating”).

• Future: Indicates an action that will occur later. Example: “I will eat.”
  

Simple and Compound Verbs 

• Simple verbs: Formed by a single word, like “run” or “read.”

• Compound verbs: Include more than one word, like the perfect tenses “I have eaten” or “I had read.”
  

Regular and Irregular Verbs 

• Regular: Follow a uniform pattern in their conjugation. Examples: “speak,” “eat,” “live.”

• Irregular: Change root or endings in some forms. Examples: “go,” “have,” “can.”
  

Perfect and Imperfect Aspect 

• Perfect: Indicates a completed action. Example: “I have eaten” (I have finished eating).

• Imperfect: Describes an action that was in process. Example: “I was eating” (I was in the process of eating).
  

Active and Passive Voice 

• Active: The subject performs the action. Example: “The chef prepares dinner.”

• Passive: The subject receives the action. Example: “Dinner is prepared by the chef.”
  

Conjugation and Conjugations in Spanish 

Conjugation is the process of changing the form of a verb to express time, mode, number, and person. In Spanish, we have three conjugations based on the endings of the infinitives:

• -ar: to love, to speak, to jump

• -er: to eat, to drink, to understand

• -ir: to live, to write, to open
  

Personal Pronouns in Spanish and Comparison with English 

The personal pronouns in Spanish are:yo, tú, él/ella/usted, nosotros/nosotras, vosotros/vosotras, ellos/ellas/ustedes. The English equivalents would be: I, you, he/she/it, we, you, they. The main difference is the inclusion of a formal “you” in Spanish and the gender-specific forms for the plural “we/us” and “you/you (plural).