Every beginner student of the Spanish language should learn how to conjugate ser, one of two Spanish verbs which mean "to be." The student should master conjugating this verb in both the present tense and preterit tense before moving on to conjugating this action word in other tenses.

In a previous Spanish lesson, I showed you when to use the verb "ser" vs. "estar." In this lesson, I will not discuss when to use this verb. Instead, I will only discuss how to conjugate it.

Here is a chart to help conjugate ser in the present tense:

(Yo) soy
(Tú) eres
(El, ella, usted) es
(Nosotros, nosotras) somos
(Ellos, ellas, ustedes) son

If you are learning European Spanish, as opposed to Latin American Spanish, then you can add "sois" to the list. Now we will use the word in a couple of phrases in the Spanish language.

La computadora es de mi hermana.
The computer is my brother's.

Soy Andrea.
I am Andrea.

Somos estudiantes en la misma escuela.
We are students in the same school.

Here is a chart to help conjugate ser in the preterit tense:

(Yo) fui
(Tú) fuiste
(El, ella, usted) fue
(Nosotros, nosotras) fuimos
(Ellos, ellas, ustedes) fueron

If you are learning European Spanish, as opposed to Latin American Spanish, then you can add "fuisteis" to the list. We looked at how to conjugate ser in the present tense, now let's look at how to conjugate ser in the preterit tense:

Cuando era pequeña me gustaba jugar en el parque.
When I was little, I used to like to play in the park.

Ella era enfermera.
She used to be a nurse.

Alejandra K. Legarda is a free lance Spanish instructor. She is also a contributor to the Learning Spanish Like Crazy course and the Verbarrator Spanish verb conjugation software. If you want to test-drive a free online demo of the Verbarrator and learn how to conjugate Spanish verbs as easy as uno, dos, tres then go here now: Verbarrator.com That's http://www.verbarrator.com/.