Verb groups

 We refferred to the form of a verb known as the infinitive - the dictionary entry or 'name' of the verb, usually the these forms will be words ending in -ar(e.g. hablar), -er(e.g. comer), or -ir(e.g. vivir). You will already have realized theat Spanish works by changing the ending of these words to indicate who is doing the action. Thus for I the ending will nearly always be -o(e.g. hablo, I speak; como, I eat and vivo, I live). The exceptions to this are given below. For other persons - he, she, you , we , they - the ending s are similar to each other but have a characteristic vowel, as you can see:

 

 

                                             - ar                -er              -ir

I                                           hablo          como           vivo

He/she/it/you(Vd.)        habla          come           vive

We                                   hablamos      comemos   vivimos

they/you(Vds)                  hablan        comen        viven

 

 

There are, however, lots of oddities and irregularities, so it's best to learn verb forms as you go along  -  we will point out important deviations from the pattern as they occur. For example, you already know most of the verbs which do not end in-o to indicate I. They are soy, I am; estoy, I am; voy, I go; sé, I know and doy, I give