Conjugated verbs

Content

• Conjugations
• Irregular verbs
• Types of verbs

In the Spanish language, verbs are the words that describe actions, be they physical and perceptible or cognitive or emotional and, therefore, imperceptible outside the subject who experiences them.

The personal forms of verbs are conjugated in a certain way, time and person. For example: We walk (Simple past perfect of the indicative mood, conjugated in the first person plural).

Verbs can describe actions by putting the active subject in the foreground, that is, the person who performs or experiences that action, or by putting the action performed in the foreground. This is accomplished in speech by means of sentences in the active voice, in the first case, or in the passive voice, in the second.

Verbs are a key element of language, one could say that the central one, and it is considered that they distinguish what is a phrase from what is a sentence: sentences that do not have a verb are often called phrases, while those that have verbs are considered sentences (however, there are certain single-member sentences that lack a verb).

Conjugations

Verbs can appear in sentences in a personal way, conjugated in any of the various modes and tenses, or in a non-personal way, in what are considered quasi-verbal forms called verboids, composed of infinitives, participles and gerunds.

All conjugated verbs keep a reference in time:

• Past. Actions that have already happened. For example: we arrived, they played, he sang.
• Present. Actions that are happening at the moment of enunciation. For example: we know, you have, come in.
• Future. Actions that will happen soon. For example: I will, you will eat, they will come.

Furthermore, all conjugated verbs belong to different modes:

• Indicative. It is used to indicate actions carried out in real contexts and it is conjugated in a certain time. For example: I know, they were, he expressed.
• Subjunctive. It expresses possible or hypothetical actions, but which are not actually occurring. It is used to express wishes, requests and assumptions. For example, him eat (present), we we would eat/let's eat(past imperfect), you will you eat(future). However, it is also used for actions that occur, for example: I'm surprised you're here.
• Imperative. It is used to give orders, express wishes or requests. It does not distinguish in verb tenses. For example:come on.

In turn, the conjugations will be made in relation to the people who perform the action:

• First person.The one who speaks is the one who executes the action. It can be singular (I), or plural (we). For example: I know, we know.
• Secondperson. Who executes the action is the interlocutor. It can be singular (you) or plural (you / you). For example: you know, they know.
• Third person. Whoever executes the action is a third party outside that enunciative act. It can be singular (he / she) or plural (they / they). For example: know, know.

Certain rules can be established regarding the conjugation of verbs, since most have the same suffixes to indicate tense, person and mood.

Irregular verbs

Unlike regular verbs, there are verbs that deviate from these conjugation schemes, as is the case with irregular verbs ending in 'car', 'cer', 'cir', 'gar', 'ger', 'gir', 'aer', 'eer', 'oer', 'acer', 'ecer', 'ocer', or with those that have the letter 'e' or the 'o' in their penultimate syllable, among some other cases.

Another exception to the grammatical structures of conjugation is the one produced by regionalisms: River Plate Spanish does not use 'you' but 'you' for the second person plural, and the ending 'áis' is replaced, for example, by 'as'.

This is a list of conjugated verbs as an example, including the mentioned variants:

1. He drew. Tense: simple past perfect. Mode: indicative. Person: third singular. Juan drew his house in class yesterday.
2. They traveled. Tense: simple past perfect. Mode: indicative. Person: third of the plural. Together they traveled to Brazil on the same plane.
3. We have gone. Tense: past perfect compound. Mode: indicative. Person: first plural. We have been to that workshop several times.
4. They had confirmed. Tense: past pluperfect. Mode: indicative. Person: third of the plural. They had confirmed the meeting time.
5. We laughed. Tense: past imperfect. Mode: indicative. Person: first plural. We all laughed a lot every time the story was told.
6. They left. Tense: simple past perfect. Mode: indicative. Person: second plural. You guys left later and that's why you were late.
7. Had heard. Tense: past pluperfect. Mode: indicative. Person: first singular. I had heard the screams the day before.
8. Short. Tense: simple past perfect. Mode: indicative. Person: second singular. You have already missed too many times.
9. Did you go out. Tense: simple past perfect. Mode: indicative. Person: second singular. You were on all the covers of the newspapers!
10. Take. Tense: simple past perfect. Mode: indicative. Person: first singular. I had a fresh lemonade yesterday.
11. They understand. Simple present tense. Mode: indicative. Person: third of the plural. My students understand better when I give them examples.
12. We could. Tense: simple conditional. Mode: indicative. Person: first plural. We may bear the costs.
13. Would have. Tense: simple conditional. Mode: indicative. Person: second plural. You would have to pay in advance.
14. Would have gone. Tense: compound conditional. Mode: indicative. Person: first plural. If it hadn't rained, we would have gone to the festival.
15. Will be missing. Time: simple future. Mode: indicative. Person: third of the plural. If we don't investigate, there will be a lack of evidence to convict him.
16. Go to. Time: simple future. Mode: indicative. Person: second singular. You will go first in line.
17. You will try. Time: simple future. Mode: indicative. Person: second singular. I guess you'll treat them better next time.
18. I will have gone. Time: Future compound. Mode: indicative. Person: first singular. Tomorrow night I will have already gone to the supermarket.
19. I arrived. Present time. Subjunctive mode. Person: first singular. The idea is that I arrive first and prepare everything.
20. Change. Tense: past imperfect. Subjunctive mode. Person: third of the plural. If the rules of the game changed, the panorama would be different.
21. Were. Tense: past imperfect. Subjunctive mode. Person: second singular. I asked you to leave.
22. Have come out. Tense: past perfect compound. Subjunctive mode. Person: third singular. I hope everything went well.
23. They would have found. Tense: past pluperfect. Subjunctive mode. Person: third of the plural. If the detectives had found him before, the story would be different.
24. Purchase. Imperative mode. Person: second singular. Always buy responsibly.
25. Lend. Imperative mode. Person: second plural. Pay attention to what I am explaining!

See more at:

• Sentences with verbs
• Sentences with and without verbs

Types of verbs