VERB TENSE AND GRAMMAR GUIDE



VERB TENSE AND GRAMMAR GUIDE

Profesor Espinosa

1- EL TIEMPO PRESENTE: Se usa para expresar las acciones que están pasando en el presente. Las desinencias (endings) verbales son:

• Para los verbos que terminan en “AR” .AMOS – Forma “NOSOTROS”

.O - Forma “YO” (primera persona) .AN - Forma “ELLOS/ELLAS/USTEDES”

.AS - Forma “TÚ” (segunda persona)

.A - Forma “ÉL/ELLA/USTED” (tercera persona)

• Para los verbos que terminan en “ER/IR” .EMOS– Forma “NOSOTROS”

.O - Forma “YO” (primera persona) .IMOS– Forma “NOSOTROS” (SOLO CON LOS VERBOS DE IR)

.ES - Forma “TÚ” (segunda persona) *los verbos ER/IR sólo son diferentes en la forma “nosotros”

.E - Forma “ÉL/ELLA/USTED” (tercera persona) .EN -Forma “ELLOS/ELLAS/USTEDES”

Excepciones / Irregulares

SER – TO BE: se usa para expresar DESCRIPCIONES, OCUPACIONES, NACIONALIDADES, TIEMPO (time not weather)

.(yo)SOY .(nosotros) SOMOS

.(tú)ERES

.(él/ella/usted) ES .(ellos/ellas/ustedes) SON

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ESTAR – TO BE: se usa para expresar EMOCIONES, LUGARES, SENTIMIENTOS

.(yo) ESTOY .(nosotros) ESTAMOS

.(tú) ESTÁS

.(él/ella/usted? ESTÁ .(ellos/ellas/ustedes) ESTÁN

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IR – TO GO

.(yo) VOY .(nosotros) VAMOS

.(tú) VAS

.(él/ella/usted) VA .(ellos/ellas/ustedes) VAN

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DAR – TO GIVE

.(yo) DOY .(nosotros) DAMOS

.(tú) DAS

.(él/ella/usted) DA .(ellos/ellas/ustedes) DAN

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Verbos con cambio en el radical (stem changing verbs): Hay cuatro tipos de verbos que cambian en el radical. The letter on the left gets dropped and replaced with the letter(s) on the right. Endings do not change. Ex: Pedir = yo pIdo. See where the change happened? If not, please come ask me (

.E - IE stem changers (never changes in “nosotros” form):

Tener, Venir, Pensar, Perder, Querer, Sentir, Despertarse, Divertirse, Nevar, Comenzar, Empezar, Preferir, Entender

.E – I stem changers (never changes in “nosotros” form):

Pedir, Seguir, Decir (this is a “go” verb-see below), *there are many others*

.O - UE stem changers (never changes in “nosotros” form):

Dormir, Acostarse, Volver, Jugar, Probar, Poder,Llover, Doler, Almorzar, Costar

Algunas excepciones: THESE CHANGES ONLY HAPPEN IN THE “YO” FORM.

.Verbs that end in “GO” aka “GO” verbs (tener, venir, poner, decir, hacer, salir, traer,): Drop the ending and add “GO”

.Verbs that end in “ZCO” (verbs like conocer, aparecer, parecer, conducir, permanecer): Drop the ending, replace the “C” with

a “ZCO” Ex. Conocer = conoZCO

2- EL TIEMPO PASADO: Hay dos tiempos verbales que se usan para expresar elementos en el pasado

The Preterite

1. One Time Action in The Past – EX: Ayer, yo estudié por tres horas.

2. The narrative past (a series of actions) – EX: Yo me levanté, comí, y salí para la escuela

3. The preterite interrupts the imperfect – EX: Yo estudiaba cuando mi madre me llamó

4. The beginning or the end (completion) of an action. – EX: They completed the project

Para los verbos que terminan en “AR” .amos – Forma “NOSOTROS”

.é - Forma “YO” (primera persona)

.aste -Forma “TÚ” (segunda persona)

.ó - Forma “ÉL/ELLA/USTED” (tercera persona) .aron - Forma “ELLOS/ELLAS/USTEDES

Para los verbos que terminan en “ER/IR” *SON IDÉNTICOS EN EL PRETÉRITO*

.í - Forma “YO” (primera persona) .imos – Forma “NOSOTROS”

.iste - Forma “TÚ” (segunda persona)

.ió - Forma “ÉL/ELLA/USTED” (tercera persona) .ieron - Forma “ELLOS/ELLAS/USTEDES”

PRETERITE IRREGULARS:

|TENER |ANDAR |ESTAR |PODER |

|tuve |anduve |estuve |pude |

|tuviste |anduviste |estuviste |pudiste |

|tuvo |anduvo |estuvo |pudo |

|tuvimos |anduvimos |estuvimos |pudimos |

|tuvieron |anduvieron |estuvieron |pudieron |

The imperfect:

1) To describe people, places or events in the past. – EX: Mi abuelo tenía pelo negro.

2) To express the time of day in the past. – EX: Eran las ocho de la mañana.

3) To set the stage or scene in the past. – EX: Era un día bueno y perfecto.

4) To express a regular, habitual, ongoing, or repeated action: - Cuando era niño, yo leía todos los días

5) Emotions, feelings or states of minds in the past – EX: Ayer yo estaba muy felíz

6) Was/were doing / used to would in the past

Para los verbos que terminan en “AR”

.aba - Forma “YO” (primera persona) .ábamos - Forma “NOSOTROS”

.abas - Forma “TÚ” (segunda persona

.aba- Forma “ÉL/ELLA/USTED” (tercera persona) .aban - Forma “ELLOS/ELLAS/USTEDES”

Para los verbos que terminan en “ER/IR” *SON IDÉNTICOS EN EL IMPERFECTO Y LLEVAN ACENTOS*

.ía- Forma “YO” (primera persona) .íamos – Forma “NOSOTROS”

.ías - Forma “TÚ” (segunda persona)

.ía - Forma “ÉL/ELLA/USTED” (tercera persona) .ían- Forma “ELLOS/ELLAS/USTEDES”

IRREGULAR IMPERFECT: There are only 3 irregulars in the imperfect

|IR |SER |VER |

|iba íbamos |era éramos, |veía veíamos |

|ibas |eras |veías |

|iba, iban |era eran |veía veían |

3. LOS PARTICIPIOS: Hay dos tipos. EL PARTICIPIO PRESENTE y EL PARTICIPIO PASADO

A)El Participio pasado: B) El Participio presente (when combine with estar=present perfect tense):

.For “AR” verbs: -ADO(A)/S .For “AR” verbs: -ANDO

.For “ER/IR” verbs – IDO(A)/S .For “ER/IR” verbs -IENDO

A) El participio pasado con estar: In English, ESTAR + PARTICIPLE looks like this

-To finish: I finished the test and now it is finished. The “ED” ending combined with “IS” tells you that this is a past participle

-To break: I broke the dish and now it is broken. The “EN” ending combined with “IS” tells you that this is a past participle

**DON’T BE MISLED. JUST BECAUSE IT IS CALLED PAST PARTICIPLE DOES NOT MEAN THAT IT IS NECESSARILY A PAST TENSE**

For example: The window is closed / The window was closed. La ventana está cerrada / La ventana estaba cerrada. Notice that the past participle does not change. What changes is the helping verb ESTAR which can be conjugated in either the past or present tense. This will usually be constructed in the past tense as this is most of the time used to describe 3rd person components.

****To form it simply drop the ending from a regular verb and add the past participle accordingly****.

IRREGULAR PAST PARTICIPLES:

|R – roto (broken) M – muerto (dead) V – vuelto (returned) H – hecho (done/made) |

|E – escrito (written) A – abierto (open) I – Imprimir (printed) D – dicho (said/stated) |

|V – visto (seen) C – cubierto(covered) P – puesto (set) D – devuelto(returned-as in to a place or store) |

B) El participio presente con estar:

This is also known as the present progressive tense. It is used with the helping verb estar to talk about an action that is or was in the process of happening. In English it is you tipical ING ending. Ex: Walking, Eating, Sleeping, etc. or Am sleeping/Was sleeping.

As was the case with the past participle, only the helping verb gets a full conjugation.

Examples: I am walking / yo estoy caminando

You are walking / Tú estás caminando

*Notice how the participle did not change. What changed was the helping verb estar*

C) Perfect tenses: Used to express what HAS, HAD, WILL HAVE, or WOULD HAVE happened. Basically is a non possessive use of “To have”. Ex: Have you seen the movie (perfect tense). I have twelve dollar (possessive). See the difference?

How to form it: It’s actually really easy!

1) conjugate the helping verb “HABER” (kinda like you did with estar) either in the present, imperfect of subjunctive. I don’t think you can conjugate it in the preterite. Yeah, I’m right. Only in those tenses.

2) Add the past participle to the non helping verb

EX: I have seen the movie / yo HE VISTO la película

CONJUGATIONS OF HABER

|Present tense: used to talk about things that HAVE happened |Imperfect tense: used to talk about things that HAD happened |Subjunctive mood: used to talk about things that HAVE happened |

| | |within the parameters of a subjunctive construction |

|HE HEMOS |HABÍA HABÍAMOS |HAYA HAYAMOS |

|HAS |HABÍAS |HAYAS |

|HA HAN |HABÍA HABÍAN |HAYA HAYAN |

4. EL SUPERLATIVO Y EL COMPARATIVO

El Comparativo: The comparativo makes a comparison between two things. It can be used to compare both adjectives and nouns. Please note that the comparisons for adjectives and nouns are not the same. There are two types COMPARISONS OF EQUALITY and COMPARISONS OF INEQUALITY

For Adjectives: When comparing equality among adjectives use the following formulas:

1) [tan + Adjective + como]. In English, this is the same as saying “as…as”. Example: I am as tall as John – Yo soy tan alto como John (this implies that I am EQUALLY, hence the equality part, as tall as John)

2) [más / menos + Adjective +que]. In English, this is the same as saying “more/less…than”. Example: I am more tall (taller) than you or I am less tall (shorter) than you – Yo soy más alto que tú or yo soy menos alto que tú.

*This can also be used in the following manner*

• To say that there are more/less things than others – There are more girls than boys. Hay más niñas que niños.

For nouns: When comparing nouns use the following:

1) [tanto, tanta, tantos, tantas + noun + como]. In English it is the same as saying “as much as/as many as”. Example: I have as many friends as you OR I have as much money as you – Yo tengo tantos amigos como tú OR Yo tengo tanto dinero como tú.

El superlativo: The superlativo described the thing that is “the most” or “the least” something. Example: I am the most intelligent person in the world.

1) To form the superlativo use the following.

el/la/los/las (the definite articles) + noun/ + más + adjective + de ______ (yo soy la persona más inteligente del mundo)

**THIS CAN BE TRICKY IF THERE IS NO NOUN** If that’s ever the case, just follow the formula without it and vice versa.

Example: I am the most intelligent - yo soy el más inteligente. Notice how we formed it without the noun? That’s ok!!

Now look at it with the noun again. yo soy la persona más inteligente. Do you have to include “in the world”

for it to be right? Not necessarily because as long as you are saying “the most” or “the least” something, you

have formed the superlative. Plus, when comparing two things you would say “more/less than” or “as…as”

rather than “the most / the least”

The irregulars: These are irregular and must therefore be memorized

1) Bueno ( Mejor / Malo ( Peor (good – better than / bad – worse than): Use this when saying that something is better / worse than (comparative). EX: Español es mejor que Inglés. (Spanish is better than English). Follow the superlative formula to say the best or worse. Español es el mejor de todas las lenguas (Spanish is the best language out of all of the languages).

2) Mayor (older/oldest)Ella es mayor que el chico (she is older than the boy)Ella es la mayor de todos (she is the oldest out of all of them).Menor (younger/youngest) Él es menor que ella (he is younger than she).Él es el menor de la familia (He is the youngest in the family).

5. MANDATOS:

-Affirmative “Tú” command (informal): Used to informally tell someone to do something. Affirmative tú commands are the same as the él/ella (or third person) form of the present tense.Ex: COME la comida.

-Negative “Tú” commands: Used to informally tell someone NOT to do something.

.Start with the “YO” form of the verb……………..COMO

.Drop the “O”…………………………………….. COM_

.Add the opposite second person ending…………. COMAS (for ER/IR verbs=AS, for AR=ES

.Lastly, put a “NO” before the verb……………….NO COMAS

-Formal (usted) command: Used to formally tell someone to do something.

.All you do to form this is drop the “S” from the negative command. Yup, that’s it!

COMAS – S = COMA

.If you want to make this negative (tell someone formally to NOT do something) simply put a NO before the verb.

NO COMA

-Ustedes command: Used to tell a group of people (self not included) to do something.

.All you do to form this is drop the “S” from the negative command and replace it with an “N”. Yup, that’s it!

COMAS – S + N = COMAN / If you want to make this negative then leave the NO as it is. If it’s not negative then get rid of

the NO

-Nosotros command: Used to tell a group of people (self included) to do something.

Start with the “YO” form of the verb……………..COMO

.Drop the “O”…………………………………….. COM_

.Add the opposite nosotros ending…………. COMAMOS (for ER/IR verbs=AMOS, for AR=EMOS

.Lastly, put a “NO” before the verb if you want to make it negative……………….NO COMAMOS

6. FUTURE TENSE: Used to express what WILL or SHALL happen in the future.

. These verbs are great because you don’t drop anything. Instead you add to the infinitive.

. All the verbs the same ending: -é, -ás, -á, -emos, -án

Three categories of exceptions:

.Add a‘d’ verbs (d replaces the vowel before the last ‘r’): tener, venir, poner, salir, valer (tenDré)

.Drop the ‘e’ verbs: haber, caber, saber, poder, querer (haBré – see how the “e” is gone?)

.Drop ‘e’ and ‘c’ verbs: hacer, decir (haRé – see how the “e” and “c” are gone?)

7. CONDITIONAL TENSE: Used to express what ‘would’ happen (I would like to eat, He would do it if he could)

.Formed like the future, only add the following endings: -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -ían

.Same exceptions as the future tense

8. OBJECT PRONOUNS: There are two of these. The DIRECT and INDIRECT OBJECT PRONOUNS. But first…..

Direct object: The direct object is that which gets the action from the verb. EX: I ate the pizza. What’s getting eating? The pizza, right? Therefore, the pizza is the DIRECT OBJECT.

Indirect object: The indirect object is to or for whom the action is being performed. EX: I give the pizza to Juan. To or for whom is the pizza being given? To Juan, right? Therefore, Juan is the INDIRECT OBJECT.

Now, we can replace the direct/indirect object pronouns and still have a sentence that makes sense. For example, we can replace “the pizza” in the first example with the direct object pronoun “it” (I ate the pizza now becomes I ate IT). You see what happened? Well, the same thing happens in Spanish. The only difference is that there are many ways to express “IT” depending on what the direct object is. Here are the direct object pronouns in Spanish.

(yo) ME (nosotros) NOS

(tú) TE

(él/ella/usted) LO/LA (ellos/ellas/ustedes) LOS/LAS

The same concept applies to indirect objects. The only difference is the instead of meaning “IT” it means something different. For example, I give the pizza to Juan becomes I give the pizza to HIM (see what happened?). In this case, HIM is the direct object. Here are the indirect object pronouns in Spanish:

(yo) ME (nosotros) NOS

(tú) TE

(él/ella/usted) LE (ellos/ellas/ustedes) LES

Please note that you CANNOT have both direct object and direct object pronoun in the same sentence. It’s either or. If you do, then it will look like this. I ATE THE PIZZA IT. That’s wrong. It’s either I ATE THE PIZZA (d.o.included) or I ATE IT (d.o.p. included). PLACEMENT: Always before the conjugated verb (yo la como) or directly after an infinitive when there are two verbs in one sentence (yo quiero comerla). Get it? Good!

|HOW TO FORM THE SUBJUNCTIVE TENSE |

|-------------------------------------------------- |

|HABLAR: |

|Yo form hablo |

|AR Verbs put “e” on end |

|Hable hablemos |

|Hables |

|Hable hablen |

| |

| |

|ER/IR verbs put “a” on end |

|Coma comamos |

|Comas |

|Coma coman |

| |

9. SUBJUNCTIVE:

Qué es el subjuntivo?

-it is a mood

-you need a phrase or a verb (remember volition??) to cause a verb to go into subjunctive.

The Formation

How do you form the subjunctive?: --------------------------------------------------------(

1. Take the “yo” form in the present tense.

2. Drop the “-o.”

3. For –ar verbs add -e, -es, -e, -emos, -éis, -en

4. For –er/-ir verbs add –a, -as, -a, -amos, -áis, -an

***Always go to the “yo” form first!!!

** Notice the yo and él, ella, Ud. forms both have the same ending in the subjunctive.

*Wish and Desire are the same thing. The verbs may be placed in either category

Here are some of the irregulars. Think about the D.I.S.H.E.S

|Dar |Ir |Saber |Haber |Estar |Ser |

|dé |vaya |sepa | haya |esté |sea |

|des |vayas |sepas |hayas |estés |seas |

|dé |vaya |sepa |haya |esté |sea |

|demos |vayamos |sepamos | hayamos |estemos |seamos |

|deis |vayáis |sepáis | hayáis |estéis |seáis |

|den |vayan |sepan | hayamos |estén |sean |

10. IMPERFECT (PAST) SUBJUNCTIVE:

*This might sound difficult but it’s really not that bad at all, especially is you already have a working knowledge of the regular present tense use of the subjunctive.

Well, here goes!

The past subjunctive is used for the SAME REASONS as the present subjunctive. The only difference is simply the time in which the action took place. For example, the actions in the present subjunctive took place, well, in the present tense. In contrast, the actions in the imperfect (past) subjunctive are in the imperfect, preterite, conditional, or pluperfect (see below) tense then the imperfect subjunctive is generally used.

EX#1: I INSISTED THAT MARIA DO IT.

-Insistí que María lo hiciera

It is also used alongside “AS IF I WERE” type of expressions.

EX#1: He speaks to me AS IF I WERE a child.

Él me hable como si yo FUERA un niño.

I know that the main clause in the second example is not in a past tense. However, the fact that the expression has an AS IF component makes it imperfect subjunctive automatically. Think of that song by Beonce “If I were a boy”. That is a perfect English example of the imperfect subjunctive.

So, here’s how to form the imperfect subjunctive. Forming the imperfect subjunctive is very easy . . . if you’ve mastered forming the preterite.

1) To form the imperfect subjunctive, go to the third person plural of the preterit (the one in bold).

hablé hablamos comí comimos

hablaste hablasteis comiste comisteis

habló hablaron comió comieron

2) Drop the –ron and add the following endings (same for –ar, -er, -ir verbs):

ENDINGS CONJUGATIONS

-ra -΄ramos hablara habláramos comiera comiéramos

-ras -rais hablaras hablarais comieras comierais

-ra -ran hablara hablaran comiera comieran

11. PLUSCUAMPERFECTO DEL SUBJUNTIVO (AKA PLUPERFECT/PAST PERFECT SUBJUNCTIVE):

This compound tense is formed by using the IMPERFECT SUBJUNCTIVE conjugation of HABER (the helping verb) plus the PAST PARTICIPLE of the verb you are using. It is used just like the present perfect but to express the same sentiment in the past tense with a subjunctive connotation.

EX: I was very sorry that she had not arrived.

-Sentí mucho que ella no HUBIERA LLEGADO.

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