El Presente

This tense of the Spanish language is known as the "Present Tense" or to be translated into english "She talks, they sleep, etc." ;) Nothing too fancy to it until you run into some irregular verbs and such. This and the future tense are probably the easiest tenses you'll ever learn (just wait for the subjunctive *snicker*) But no worries...

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Here are your pronouns :P They're basically the same thing in English as well. The only time they change is with double object pronouns, etc. These will be the base of most of the language.

Yo - I
Tú - you
él, ella, usted (form.) - he, she
nosotros/as - we
vosotros/as, ustedes (form.) - y'all
Ellos, Ellas, ustedes - they

The "form." stands for formal. Use these with people of higher status, strangers and just to be generally polite to your superiors ;)

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-Ar verbs, Verbs ending in -ar

These are the easiest verbs ever ;P Except for some irregular verbs that you'll come across... I could make a giant wiki for it, maybe another day. Anyways, the endings are included below:

Yo= -o
Tú= -as
él, ella, usted= -a
Vosotros/as= -amos
Vosotros/as= -áis
Ellos, ellas, Ustedes= -an

This is the way to end your -ar verbs. You keep the root of the verb (just take off the -ar) and add the assigned letter to its' place. Like so...

Lets conjugate hablar- to speak

I speak - hablo (yo hablo)
You speak- hablas (tú hablas)
he, she speaks- habla (él/ella/usted habla)
we speak- hablamos (nosotros hablamos)
y'all speak- habláis (vosotros habláis)
they speak- hablan (ellos hablan)


That wasn't bad :P As I've warned though, many verbs have their irregularities which can be annoying unless you've had them beaten into you by crazy teachers *cough*. But there are still some that work this way ;)

Bailar
Cantar
Mandar
Buscar

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Note:
You can easily go without the pronoun in front of the verb but I don't recommend it :P Only because you're going to need them more for other things in the future... best practise using them while it's easy.

You can get away w/o them though ;)
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Irregular verbs, stem changing verbs

Some verbs have "stem changes" or the letters/stems in the root word change when it's conjugated into the present tense (and usually the preterite, subj., etc.). There are many of these that pop up everywhere o.o

ex. Jugar - to Play
Stem change: o:ue ('o' to 'ue')

I play- juego
You play- juegas
he, she plays- juega
we play- jugamos
y'all play- jugáis
they play- juegan

The vosotros and nosotros forms DO NOT stem change and never do in any stem changing verbs (in all tenses).

These are also known as boot verbs ;P If you lined them up next to each other in a rows of threes (see below) then draw an imaginary box around the stem changing verbs you make an ugly boot. Cool eh? *cough*

Juego      Jugamos
Juegas     Jugáis    
Juega      Juegan

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-Er verbs, Verbs ending in -er

These are just as easy as the -ar verbs and they come with stem changes as well :P (more on that later). These are simple:

I= -o
you= <b>-es
he, she, usted= -e
we= -emos
y'all= -éis
they= -en

So to conjugate Comer - to eat

I eat- como
you eat- comes
he, she eats- come
we eat- comemos
y'all eat- comeís
they eat- comen

Exception!!! Tener cannot be put into this manor. There are diferent rules for tener (to have). (This is another irregular verb. There are many more in spanish, but you'll meet them later on).

This is probably one of the most used spanish verbs you'll use :P Next to 'ir', 'venir', 'estar' and 'ser'.

I have- Tengo
you have- Tienes
he, she has- tiene
we have- Tenemos
y'all have- tenéis
They have- tienen

Example. I have 3 dollars= Tengo tres dólares.

Another verb that is conjugated exactly the same is the verb 'venir' - "to come":

I come - Vengo
You come - Vienes
He comes - Viene
We come - Venemos
y'all come - Venís
They come - Vienen

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-Ir Verbs, Verbs that end in -ir

I know these now xD Okay, these are conjugated just like the -er verbs except in the nosotros and vosotros form. They're just as easy as the -er verbs except for the scary irregulars ;)

Yo= -o
Tú= -es
he, she, usted= -e
nosotros= -imos
y'all= -ís
ellos, ellas, ustedes= -en

So I'll show you with vivir- to live.

I live- vivo
You live- vives
he, she lives- vive
we live- vivimos
y'all- vivís
they live- viven

Exception!! The verb to go (ir) is conjugated in a different way. Almost the same as -ar verbs and ser. Here....

Ir- to go

I go- voy
you go- vas
he, she, usted goes- va
we go- vamos
y'all go- váis
they go- van

So you would use this for things like: I go to the mall every day.
Yo voy al centro comercial todos los dios. ;)

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Stem Changes

What?! More! O_o Yes there is! You need to learn some stem changes or else you'll end up saying the wrong thing and sounding like a royal prat xD

There are three stem changes in the present tense:
(o:ue) 'o' to 'ue'
(e:ie) 'e' to 'ie'
(e:i) 'e' to 'i'

Okay, I'm rusty on this because I really only know when a verb sounds bad >.< I'll probably use some words you don't know but that's the best I can do.
These are one of those things where you need to have good memorisation, years of practise in Spanish or you've grown up speaking the language (so why are you here).

o:ue

You use this in verbs such as 'dormir', 'morir', 'almorzar', and 'recordar'

((To be continued))


There so those are some versions of conjugations you can use. Go to Lesson 5 for verbs to make a cool meaning >.<.

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