The Present Tense of AR Verbs

Review

We already know that the infinitive forms of verbs always end in AR, ER, and IR

The largest group of verbs end in AR Hablar is one of these AR verbs

We will want to use verbs in other ways (not just in the infinitive)

To do this, we drop the AR ending from the infinitive and add a new ending

To create the forms of most AR verbs, we drop the AR, leaving the stem: Hablar Habl

Then we add a new verb ending to the stem.

AR VERBS

AR verb endings

Yo o Nosotros amos

Tu as

Él a Ellos an

The process of dropping the AR ending and adding a new ending is called CONJUGATING

Example

Let’s conjugate Hablar

Yo Nosotros

Tu

El Ellos

hablo

hablas

habla

hablamos

hablan

In Spanish, the present tense form of a verb can be translated into English in two ways:

Hablo español I speak/I am speaking Spanish

The verb endings indicate who is doing the action. Because of this, we can use the verb without the subject Hablo inglés Hablas español

BUT, subject pronouns are used for clarification… Ella habla inglés, pero él habla español