How to Learn Basic Spanish Verbs Quickly - Part 1

Regular Spanish verbs fall into three categories, in these articles we will show you how they work and how to work with them.

If you are learning Spanish verbs it helps to know what a verb is. A verb is a doing word that means everything from an action to an opinion, so run, jump, like, dislike, love, kick, fall, smile, hear, write and turn, are all examples of English verbs. In the English language the verb is not changed by who is doing the doing! As an example;

In these phrases, I like cheese, we like cheese and, you like cheese, the verb like stays the same. In Spanish (as well as other languages) the form of the verb is changed by who is doing the doing. It might sound odd now but it will make sense later!

So lets look at the three types of basic Spanish verbs. They are the verbs that end in the letters ar, er and ir. they can then be subdivided into regular and irregular. As we are just starting we will stick to the regular verbs.

How to Learn Basic Spanish Verbs -AR Verbs

Of the three basic Spanish verbs the ones ending in ar are the most common, so they are a good place to start. If we take the Spanish verb TOMAR, it means a few different things, but in our case it means to drink.

To say, I drink wine, in Spanish we would remove the a and r , then to add an o. to give us tomo vino. You could add yo (the Spanish word for I) at the start of the sentence but it would be unnecessary.

To say you drink wine to just one person, again, we remove the a and r, and add as, to givetomas vino.

If we wanted to say that he or she drinks wine, then we would add just an a, to give us toma vino. This version of tomar would also be used in a formal situation, or if talking to someone for the first time.

When learning our basic Spanish verbs and wanting to say we drink wine, we add amos to give us tomamos vino.

If we wanted to refer to a group when using, you drink wine, we would add áis, giving tomáis vino.

They drink wine, would require the addition of an, so toman vino, would be the correct phrase.

Thats enough for now, will cover the ER and IR at a later date. I hope that this article has made learning Spanish verbs easier for you!

Good Luck.