The easiest way to learn the Spanish regular verbs – Episode 012

The easiest way to learn the Spanish regular verbs

Podcast episode 12 – SEE ALL EPISODES

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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Today’s question comes from Kate, one of my students. Kate asked me while back whether I could give her some tips to learn the regular verbs fast.

I came up with a few ideas. Today I want to concentrate on how to get the present tense of regular verbs always right.

The easiest way to remember verb forms is by finding similarities between the regular ‘ar’, ‘er’ and ‘ir’ forms.

See also: Maria’s step-by-step Spanish courses.

Learn the Spanish regular verbs: find similarities

Instead of learning them on their own, you should get into the habit of comparing different verbs, and finding similarities between them. That will help you avoid making basic mistakes.

Today we’re going to go through the present tense of these three regular verbs: comprar (to buy) comprar; vender (to sell) vender, and vivir (to live) vivir.

With my new approach, I’m going to say each person for the three verbs, and then I’m going to show you the similarities between those three forms.

For the person ‘yo’ we have:

compro – vendo – vivo

I buy, I sell, I live

compro – vendo – vivo

Notice how they all end in ‘o’: compro – vendo – vivo – compro – vendo – vivo

For the person ‘tú’ we have:

compras – vendes – vives

you buy, you sell, you live

compras – vendes – vives

Have a look at
Maria’s step-by-step Spanish courses

These three forms end in ’s’: compras – vendes – vives

‘ar’ verbs end in ‘as’, compras. Whereas ‘er’ and ‘ir’ verbs end in ‘es’: vendes, vives

For the persons ‘él, ella, usted’ we have:

compra – vende – vive

he buys, he sells, he lives

compra – vende – vive

These three forms end in a vowel.

‘ar’ verbs end in ‘a’, compra, compra. Whereas ‘er’ and ‘ir’ verbs end in ‘e’: vende, vive.

Learn the Spanish regular verbs: plural forms

For the persons ‘nosotros, nosotras’ we have:

compramos – vendemos – vivimos

we buy, we sell, we live

compramos – vendemos – vivimos

These three forms end in ‘m-o-s’.

‘ar’ verbs take the vowel ‘a’: compramos

‘er’ verbs take the vowel ‘e’: vendemos

and ‘ir’ verbs take the vowel ‘i’: vivimos

For the persons ‘vosotros, vosotras’ we have:

compráis – vendéis – vivís

you (plural) buy, you sell, you live

compráis – vendéis – vivís

These three forms end in ‘i-s’.

‘ar’ verbs take the vowel ‘a’: compráis

‘er’ verbs take the vowel ‘e’: vendéis

and ‘ir’ verbs take no extra vowel: vivís

Have a look at
Maria’s step-by-step Spanish courses

And for the persons ‘ellos, ellas, ustedes’ we have:

compran – venden – viven

they buy, they sell, they live

compran – venden – viven

These three forms end in ‘n’.

‘ar’ verbs take the vowel ‘a’: compran

‘er’ verbs take the vowel ‘e’: venden

and ‘ir’ verbs take the vowel ‘e’: viven

Learn the Spanish regular verbs: Let’s compare them

If we compare the six forms and three verbs, we can see other similarities:

The ‘tú’, ‘él, ella, usted’ and ‘ellos, ellas, ustedes’ forms, these three forms take the same vowels:

compras – compra – compran

vendes – vende – venden

vives – vive – viven

Have a look at
Maria’s step-by-step Spanish courses

Notice also that the forms for ‘tú’ are like the forms for ‘él, ella, usted’ plus an ’s’: compra – compras, vende – vendes, vive – vives.

And finally, notice that the forms for ‘‘ellos, ellas, ustedes’ are like the forms for ‘él, ella, usted’ plus an ’n’: compra – compran, vende – venden, vive – viven.

The similarities we’ve found today for the present tense will work for all regular verbs. Try building the forms of other regular verbs, and let me know if these tips help you build verb forms faster.

Find out more about my Spanish courses.