Apuntes 8-9 de octubreLa conjugación de los verbos(Verb Conjugation)

When you conjugate a verb, you change the infinitive so that it shows who is doing the action. The ending of a verb tells who is doing the action.

Infinitives are the most basic forms of a verb. All infinitives in Spanish end in –ar, -er or –ir. Here are some examples of infinitives: hablar (to speak)trabajar (to work)estudiar (to study)comer (to eat)escribir (to write)

In order to conjugate a verb, you must take off the –ar, -er or –ir from the infinitive. This leaves you with the verb stem. Here are the verb stems of some sample verbs: infinitive verb stemescuchar escuch-estudiar estudi-leer le-escribir escrib-

You complete the conjugation by adding the appropriate ending. The endings for regular verbs that end in –ar are as follows: Subject Verb endingyo -otú -asUd., él/ella -anosotros/as -amosvosotros/as -áisUds., ellos/as -an

Here is a complete present-tense conjugation for the verb DIBUJAR.

DIBUJAR (to draw) Singular Plural

(yo) dibujo (nosotros/as) dibujamosI draw we draw

(tú) dibujas (vosotros/as) dibujáisyou draw you guys draw

(Ud., él/ella) dibuja (Uds., ellos/as) dibujanYou (formal) draw, he/she draws You (all) draw, they draw

When making a sentence, you change the ending to say who is doing the action. The subject pronoun is optional and is often left off. (Yo) dibujo en la clase de arte. (I draw in art class.)

¿Dibujan (ellos) en la clase de arte? (Do they draw in art class?)

To make a sentence negative, put a no in front of the verb. (Nosotros) no dibujamos en la clase de arte. (We don’t draw in art class.)