Spanish Verb Conjugations, where should we start?

Well, the first thing we should not do is presume that you know what a conjugation is, never mind Spanish verb conjugations, so here is a brief explanation or definition if you prefer.

A conjugation, where linguistics is concerned, is the formation of a specific form of a verb, normally comprising of the stem of a verb and one of various different endings that when attached to the stem indicate the task performer and tense amongst other things.

Another aspect of Spanish verbs you need to be aware of is that unlike English verbs they are not preceded by the word 'to', which is what defines a verb in English.

In Spanish the 'to' part of the verb is at the end of the verb stem, in the example that follows the regular Spanish verb 'hablar', is used which means to speak and the stem of 'hablar' is 'habl-' and the ending, in this case '-ar' is the equivalent of the English 'to'.

With Spanish verb conjugations it is far easier to understand who is performing an action than in English; for example if we take the verb 'hablar' and compare the Spanish verb conjugations to its English equivalent, you will see that apart from the third person singular there are no changes at all to the English verb stem, making it practically impossible to tell who is performing the task without the use of a pronoun.

With the Spanish verb conjugations, however, a specific ending is attached to the stem of the verb to indicate who or what is performing the task.

Yo hablo - I speak

Tú hablas - You speak

Él/ Ella/ Usted habla - He/ She/ You speaks

Nosotros hablamos - We speak

Vosotros habláis - You speak

Ellos/ Ellas/ Ustedes hablan - They/You speak

In Latin and South American Spanish speaking countries it is quite common for the pronouns to still be used all the time, but Castilian Spanish (the base language) tends to longer use pronouns and they are dropped completely other than to avoid ambiguity or if being polite.

And that is probably the most basic explanation of Spanish verb conjugations I can give, there are of course regular '-ir' and '-er' verbs that have different verb endings and also irregular verbs that unfortunately must be learned individually as they do not follow regular conjugational patterns.

If you need help with verb conjugations or irregular Spanish verbs in particular visit Irregular Spanish Verbs here you will be able to gain access to the most comprehensive collection of Irregular Spanish Verbs available on the net today. Or if you want to learn Spanish http://www.learn--spanish.net/ try out a free 6 day Spanish course at Learn Spanish, where you will be sure to improve your conversational Spanish.