Verbs

Introduction to Spanish Verb Conjugation
Concept Is Similar to Verb Conjugation in English, But It's More Extensive

By Gerald Erichsen, About.com Guide
See More About:spanish for beginnersspanish grammarspanish verb conjugationspanish infinitives
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The concept of verb conjugation is the same as in English — only the details are far more complicated.
Verb conjugation refers to the process of changing a verb form to provide information about the action being performed. The form of the verb can give us someidea about who is performing the action, when the action is being performed, and the relation of the verb to other parts of the sentence.

To better understand the concept of conjugation in Spanish, let's look at some conjugation forms in English and compare them with some Spanish forms. In the examples below, the English verbs are explained first, followed by the corresponding Spanish forms. Ifyou're a beginner, don't worry for now about what terms like "present tense," "auxiliary verb" and "indicative" mean. If you can't understand what they refer to by the examples given, you will learn them in your later studies. This lesson isn't intended to be an exhaustive analysis of the subject, but rather just enough that you can grasp the concept of how conjugation works.

Infinitive

Totalk is the infinitive form of the verb in English. It is the basic form of the verb, by itself conveying no information about the verb action. It can be used as a noun, as in "To talk in public is difficult." (Some grammarians classify talk by itself as the infinitive).
The same things are true of Spanish infinitives; they convey no information about the verb action, and they can be used as nouns.Infinitives in Spanish always end in -ar, -er or -ir. The verb for "to talk" is hablar.
Present-tense indicative verbs

I talk, you talk, he talks, she talks, we talk, they talk. In English, an "-s" is added at the end of most verbs to indicate that it is being used in the third-person, present-tense singular form. No suffix is added to indicate any subject other than the third person (someoneother than the person speaking, also known as the first person, or the person being spoken to, the second person). Thus we say, "I speak, you speak, he speaks, she speaks, we speak, they speak."
In Spanish, various endings are attached to verbs to indicate who is speaking for first-, second-, and third-person forms in the singular and plural. For regular verbs, the -ar, -er or -ir at the end isreplaced with the appropriate ending. Examples: yo hablo, I talk; tú hablas, you (singular) talk; él habla, he talks; ella habla, she talks; nosotros hablamos, we talk; ellos hablan, they talk. In many cases the verb form gives enough information that it isn't necessary to indicate with a subject noun or pronoun who is performing the action. Example: canto, I sing.
Future-tense indicative

Iwill talk, you will talk, he will talk, we will talk, they will talk. In English, the future tense is formed by using the auxiliary verb "will."
For the future tense, Spanish uses a set of verb endings that indicate who is performing the action as well as indicate that it is happening in the future.. Examples: hablaré, I will speak; hablarás, you (singular) will speak; él hablará, he will speak;...