Spanish Verb Forms - Once Spanish Verbs Are Mastered Spanish Will Become Much Easier!

A major part of learning any language is learning verb conjugation and the Spanish language is no exception. Spanish verb forms can be complex, especially those verbs that have an irregular formation. Unfortunately, avoiding these irregular verbs is impossible as many of the most commonly used verbs in Spanish are irregular.

Spanish irregular verbs are amongst some of the hardest verb systems to learn, however there are certain things that once learned will make learning these verbs so much easier and we’ll go over these in a moment.

In Spanish the infinitive of a verb has two parts, the stem and the ending, The stem is the verb and the ending is the equivalent to the English ‘to’, as in ‘to swim’ or ‘to walk’.

Spanish verbs are split into three groups. These groups are categorized using the three different verb endings that are used in Spanish and are called; -ar, -er and -ir verbs, each group has a particular formation, or conjugation, that all regular verbs in that group follow.

Once these regular verb conjugations have been learnt, regular verbs are very easy to conjugate and understand. However, knowing which verb in Spanish is regular and which is irregular can only be memorized and, as with most languages, the verbs that are used most often are nearly always irregular.

There are certain common uses of irregular verbs in Spanish that if learnt will make learning Spanish a lot easier, many of these uses include using various forms of the verb ‘haber’ - ‘to have’, which is used predominantly as an auxiliary verb in Spanish and as such, is extremely important when using past tenses.

These are the present tense forms of the verb ‘haber’ and you will benefit greatly from learning them;

Yo he - I have
Tú has - you have
El/ella ha/hay - he/she/it has
Nosotros hemos - we have
Vosotros habéis - you have
Ellos/ellas han - they have

Another important thing to remember is how to create the past participle of a verb as these, when combined with ‘haber’, create past forms of a verb. In most cases forming a past participle of a verb is quite simple, you basically add -ado onto the stem of an -ar verb, and -ido onto the stem of an -er or -ir verb.

For example:

Hablar (to speak, talk) becomes hablando.
Tener (to have) becomes tenido and,
Venir (to come) becomes venido.

Combining these two important parts of Spanish grammar with provide you with the most commonly used past tense.

Yo he hablando - I have spoken
Ella ha tenido - She has had
Nosotros hemos venido - We have come

Other specific forms of irregular verbs that are commonly used are:

‘fue’ - this is of the preterite forms of the verb 'ser' - ‘to be’ in this instant it means ‘he, she or it was’ However, it is advisable to learn all the forms of ‘ser’ in the preterite form.

‘dijo’ - this is of the preterite forms of the verb ‘decir’ - ‘to say’ and means he, she, it said and as with the preterite of ‘ser’ it is well worth learning all the preterite forms.

‘habia’ - imperfect tense of the verb ‘haber’ used for 'there was' or were.

‘hizo’ - preterite form of 'hacer' meaning ‘he, she or it did’, or ‘made’.

‘Podría’ - ‘he or she could’,or ‘he or she may be able to’ is the conditional form of the verb ‘poder’ - ‘to be able to’ or ‘can’.

‘sido’ - is the irregular past participle of the verb ‘ser’ - ‘to be’ and literally means ‘been’, ‘sido’ is normally used with the auxiliary verb ‘haber’ and when combined it means ‘have, has or had been’

Please remember that the above are just a small cross section of the most commonly used forms of irregular verbs. However, by just knowing these verb forms you will definitely find that you will be able to form a large number of the sentences you will quite often use.