Useful things to remember
Verbs- Present Tense
-AR,- ER, -IR
An infinitive means “to…”
 It is the most general form of the verb and cannot be used in a Spanish sentence as is. You must
change the ending so it makes sense.
 You must remove the AR and then add your AR verb endings (see chart).
 It cannot be used with definite or indefinite articles (el, la, unos, unas, etc.), or subject pronouns.
 Infinitives can end in –AR, -ER, or –IR in Spanish. Right now, you only know conjugations for –AR
verbs. They are different from the other 2.
Examples:
To talk- hablar
 the -AR at the end means you must use -AR verb conjugation endings for each subject
pronoun. The -AR at the end is significant to “to…” when using the infinitive.
o the subject pronoun (yo, tú, él, ella, etc.) tells who the person is. It must
match the verb ending and the verb ending must match the person!
 There cannot be 2 conjugated verbs next to each other in one sentence in Spanish.
 -DO NOT use the infinitive in a sentence. It must be conjugated.
o For example, yo hablar doesn’t make sense because you can’t say, “I to talk” in English.
To eat- comer
 the -ER at the end means you must use -ER verb conjugation endings for each subject
pronoun. The -ER at the end is significant to “to…” when using the infinitive.
o the subject pronoun (yo, tú, él, ella, etc.) tells who the person is. It must
match the verb ending and the verb ending must match the person!
 There cannot be 2 conjugated verbs next to each other in one sentence in Spanish.
 -DO NOT use the infinitive in a sentence. It must be conjugated.
o For example, yo comer doesn’t make sense because you can’t say, “I to eat” in English.
To write- escribir
 the -IR at the end means you must use -IR verb conjugation endings for each subject pronoun.
The -IR at the end is significant to “to…” when using the infinitive.
o the subject pronoun (yo, tú, él, ella, etc.) tells who the person is. It must
match the verb ending and the verb ending must match the person!
 There cannot be 2 conjugated verbs next to each other in one sentence in Spanish.
 -DO NOT use the infinitive in a sentence. It must be conjugated.
o For example, yo escribir doesn’t make sense because you can’t say, “I to write” in
English.
 Remember- There are 3 translations in English for these verb conjugations:
o
Ex: To talk- hablar
 Conjugated: Yo hablo.
 Meanings in English:
o
o
o
I talk.
I do talk.
I am talking.

Hablar is not the only verb that has these
translations. It’s just a pattern and can be
replaced with other words like ayudar,
estudiar, comer, escribir, etc. (I am
studying, I do study, I study, etc). Any
subject pronoun works as well.
 **THERE ARE NO HELPING VERBS IN SPANISH. Do not use SER (soy, eres, es, etc) or ESTAR with
any -AR verb conjugations, even if you want to say, “is, am, or are.”
 Your subject pronouns cannot be matched with any other verb conjugation than what is on the chart.
o For example, Yo goes with hablo. Ellos goes with hablan. Yo goes with como. Ellos goes
with comen., etc. Keep this in mind when writing sentences and conjugating.
 WRITE ALL SUBJECT PRONOUNS IN SENTENCES IN SPANISH. Although they can be omitted, use
unless otherwise specified.
Steps for conjugating with regular -AR,-ER,-IR verbs:
1. Look at verb- determine definition (if needed)- know ending as –AR,-ER,-IR (hablar- to speak/to talk,
comer- to eat, escribir- to write).
2. Drop the –AR, -ER, or -IR. The stem remains (habl-, com-, escrib-)
3. Add the appropriate ending. It is determined by the subject of the sentence. Use the subject
pronouns: yo, tú, él, ella, ud., nosotros, vosotros, ellos, ellas, uds. Your endings must match the
person you’re talking about!!
*Remember: CAPS for beginning of the sentence and proper nouns, commas (English usage),
punctuation (end of sentence, beginning and end (! and ?))