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 oNosotros amos Tu as Él aEllos an

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

Example  Let’s conjugate Hablar YoNosotros Tu ElEllos 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