Learning Spanish – Part 7 – Essential Elements of Spanish Grammar and Verb Tables

In my last article I started to talk about Spanish verb formations. In this article I want to talk specifically about verb conjugation books and a little about learning Spanish grammar in general.

For the most part the Spanish language is highly ordered. You can pretty much dissect any Spanish sentence and understand why it has been constructed in the way that it has, simply by learning some fundamental concepts about Spanish grammar. Once you understand those concepts you can use them to formulate other sentences.

My intention here is not to discuss in any great detail the workings of any particular aspect of Spanish grammar but rather to indicate those elements of Spanish grammar that are pretty much essential if you want to gain a good understanding of how the Spanish language works. Below I have divided these elements into four categories.

Spanish verb formations – Different tenses.
Gender – Forming masculine and feminine nouns and adjectives. Verbs and gender.
Types of words – Using prepositions / conjunctions / adverbs etc.
Sentence formation – How different words fit together in a sentence.

All of the above elements of Spanish grammar were included in the basic level Spanish textbook that I used when I first started to learn Spanish and in every other textbook that I have seen since.

I mentioned in my last article that you will want to buy a Spanish verb conjugation book in order to learn how Spanish verbs are formed. Not only can you use these books to understand and learn how different verbs should be formed in different tenses but you can also use them to learn which verbs fall into different formation categories. You can instantly tell for example if a new verb you have learnt is regular or irregular.

Verb conjugation books provide a constant reference. Every time you learn a new verb in Spanish how will you know how that verb should be formed in different tenses? You will have to refer to a verb conjugation book. Although you can often guess how a verb should be formed by looking at how it is spelt and whether it ends in AR, ER, or IR you can never really be sure.

Even when you have learnt how different verbs are formed in some of the most commonly used verb tenses you still may have to refer to a verb conjugation book to see how that verb is formed in a tense that is used in speech far less often!

Even when you are highly proficient in Spanish it is still quite likely that you will have to refer to a verb conjugation book from time to time. Even native Spanish speaking people have to use them occasionally! The truth is that there are thousands of different verbs that can be formed in so many different ways that it would be almost impossible to know and memorise how every verb should be formed and used in all types of situations!

A good start for anyone learning Spanish verbs would be to concentrate on commonly used verbs. Look around you and think about different types of everyday situations where you need to use a verb in order to communicate. Very quickly you will have a list of several hundred everyday verbs. Once you have done this you then need to learn which ones are regular and which are irregular. You can use your verb conjugation book to do this.

Before I embarked on my trip to Central and South America I did buy myself a Spanish verb conjugation book. However, after travelling for a while I ended up buying another one. This is because the first one I bought didn’t include all possible verb tenses, probably because some verb tenses in Spanish are rarely used. There is for example two different ways that the past subjunctive tense can be formed in Spanish. Some verb conjugation books might not show both methods of formation and some don’t even show the past subjunctive tense at all!

So, when buying a verb conjugation book be sure to check that it includes everything you need to know. If you don’t know exactly what to check for take a look at the verb tables on Spanishexperto.com. These tables contain all the different verb tenses that you will ever come across when learning Spanish.

So far in this series of articles I have talked about some of the things you might want to think about before starting to learn Spanish, such as mental preparation. I have also touched on different learning techniques and have pointed out some of the areas of study that you will inevitably engage yourself in if you are serious about learning Spanish.

I have also barked on about my basic level Spanish textbook that I studied before my trip to Central and South America. After finishing this basic level textbook and arming myself with a fair selection of different Spanish words I thought I was ready to take on the Spanish language for real. I couldn’t have been more wrong! In my next article I intend to talk about what happened to me when I first tried to communicate with the native Spanish-speaking people of Tijuana in Mexico.

Learning Spanish – Part 6 – What’s The Best Way to Learn Spanish Verb Formations?

In my last article I started to talk about a Spanish textbook called ‘Pasos’. This was the textbook I used when I first started learning Spanish. When I started studying from it I didn’t use it to its full potential. This was really down to time constraints and the fact I was about to embark on a long trip to central and South America. I wanted to finish the book before I set off.

The point of the article was really to warn others against falling into the same trap if possible. This particular Spanish textbook and others like it are full of quizzes and exercises that are designed to test the reader’s ability to retain and understand the information that is being taught. I didn’t spend enough time working through the various chapters or attempting all of the exercises. In hindsight I know it would have been better to spend as much time as I needed in order to cover everything that the book had to offer.

In this article I want to talk some more about the same Spanish textbook, in particular about how it dealt with teaching Spanish verb formations. Learning how to form Spanish verbs can be very frustrating for native speakers of English. This is because they are formed very differently. In Spanish it is often not necessary to use subject personal pronouns (I, you, he, she etc) with verbs like it is in English. Look at this simple example:-

I live in England. = Vivo en Inglaterra.

Notice in Spanish no word for ‘I’ is used. This is because much of the time the way that a Spanish verb is formed will automatically indicate what subject personal pronoun is being referred to (I, you, he, she etc). At first this can seem very confusing and then later on it can still seem very confusing! The difficulty is that there are so many different ways that one single verb might be formed. Not only does the verb change depending on which subject personal pronoun it is used with but it also changes depending on what verb tense is being used (present, past, future etc).

Unfortunately, you will have to learn how Spanish verbs are formed even to have a very basic conversation. There is no escaping it!

Spanish verbs can be split into those that are regular and those that are irregular. The benefit of learning how to form Spanish regular verbs is that once you know how to form one verb in one particular tense you can apply the same formation rules to all regular verbs. You only need to know how to form the verb once!

So, what are the best ways to go about learning how to form Spanish verbs? There are without doubt a lot more regular verbs in Spanish than there are irregular ones so learning the formation rules that apply to regular verbs is probably a good start. Some of the most very common verbs in Spanish are irregular however, so sooner or later you will have to study these too!

The Spanish textbook I was using started to introduce verb formations right from the very beginning but didn’t include any detailed explanations about them until perhaps half way through the book. I was putting sentences together using different verb formations without really knowing why. Of course a sentence without a verb is not much of a sentence so being subjected to them right away was unavoidable.

To begin with it is probably a good idea to start making sentences with verbs by concentrating on remembering what the verb in it’s infinitive form means rather than trying to learn how it is formed in different tenses.

Infinitive verb examples – (to live = vivir / to eat = comer / to talk = hablar)

You are still learning, simply by remembering what lots of different verbs means. Later on at a point, which best suites, you, you can begin to look at different verb tenses and formations. For me, the Spanish textbook I was using didn’t explain in sufficient logical detail how verbs were formed. I was keen to understand this quite early on in my studies. My textbook approached the subject on a piecemeal basis, which seemed a little too disjointed for me. I would have preferred to learn about verbs as a separate topic rather than having them introduced them bit by bit!

Whichever way you decide to learn about verbs, one thing you will almost certainly want in your possession is a verb conjugation (formation) book. This is a book that will tell you how every conceivable verb in the Spanish language should be formed in all tenses. (Some books are more in depth than others!)

Verb conjugation books and more about what my basic level Spanish text book taught me is what I intend to continue talking about in my next article.

Part 5 – Learning Spanish – Using Text Books to Their Full Potential

In my last article I talked about two different approaches to learning Spanish; ‘parrot fashion’ or by studying Spanish grammar. In this article I want to talk a little about what I learnt from a basic level Spanish text book in 6 weeks before I embarked on a long trip to Central and South America.

Having hindsight is a wonderful thing! It isn’t until now, after spending a number of years really getting to grips with the Spanish language that I can appreciate how learning Spanish might be best achieved. Certainly being aware of your limitations, what you hope to achieve and when you hope to achieve it and being mentally prepared for the ups and downs of the entire experience are certainly worth considering before you get started.

I said before that a good way to get started is to start learning new Spanish words and phrases without worrying too much about Spanish grammar. Well this is true but if you’re serious about learning Spanish then you will eventually have to start studying Spanish grammar.

The text book I used in order to obtain a basic level understanding of Spanish grammar was called ‘Pasos’. I am not necessarily advocating this book over any other as I have seen several other text books that adopt similar approaches to the same teachings. The book didn’t just dive into talking about Spanish grammar right from the beginning either. It eased me into it after a couple of chapters or so. The first couple of chapters taught me some basic greetings and how to introduce myself without getting too technical!

I was learning new words and phrases without necessarily understanding why certain words or sentences were constructed in the way that they were. One of the biggest problems I encountered at the beginning was trying to absorb and remember all the new material I was learning. One reason for this was because I didn’t have the luxury of time and I was trying to take a lot of things in over a short period of time.

An important part of the learning process is finding a way that best allows you to absorb information without becoming board or loosing concentration. The text book I was using gave me time to reflect on each area of study by engaging me in different activities. The activities included multiple choice quizzes, and various word association exercises. A student is far more likely to remain enthused about studying if they can learn via a variety of different types of exercises and quizzes.

Of course quizzes and exercises are not used in the learning process just to keep the student enthused. They are also used to test whether a student has remembered what they have been taught or whether they have correctly understood, and assimilated what the intension of the lesson was. In one respect they give the student the chance to see if they have remembered new Spanish words or phrases for example.

In later chapters in my Spanish text book the exercises and quizzes were more focused on making sure that I could apply the things I was learning to different situations. Often this would involve seeing if I could formulate sentences using correct verb formations. The formation of Spanish verbs is something that I intend to write more about in my next article.

Another very important method of learning that my text book allowed me to engage in was through listening. The book was accompanied by several CD’s. Each CD contained different listening exercises that related to each area of study. These exercises not only made the entire learning experience more varied and therefore more enjoyable but were also vital in making sure I was exposed to the language in a way that was as natural as it could be.

It is important to remember that if you are serious about learning Spanish then you not only want to be able to speak it but you want to be able to speak it so that native Spanish speaking people will understand you. This means you have to work on your pronunciation right from the very beginning. You don’t want to practice saying things in Spanish over and over again if you are pronouncing badly. This will only instil bad habits that will become more difficult to shake of later on.

It is also important to remember that you want to be able to read and understand the Spanish language, not just be able to speak it. This is another reason how attempting a variety of different exercise will benefit you. Don’t just focus on being able to speak well. You will be surprised to find out how difficult it can be to write in Spanish if all you have done is learn how to communicate verbally.

When I first started working through my first Spanish text book I have to admit that I skipped things and I didn’t attempt all the different exercise that were provided. As I said before this was in part due to time constraints, but looking back I can now see how important they all were. If you choose to start your learning experience by working through a Spanish text book like I did or even if you are using this method as part of a bigger strategy my advice would be not to rush things and to make sure you make the most of everything the book is trying to offer you.

In my next article I intend to talk about the sections of my Spanish text book that were more focused on Spanish grammar, in particular on how different verb tense are formed.