Spanish All-in-One For Dummies

From Spanish All-in-One For Dummies by Consumer Dummies

Spanish is a language that requires verb conjugation according to the person you’re speaking to and speaking about, so starting with present and past participles and the range of subject pronouns, you can talk about doing things all day long — and all day yesterday as well. In learning any language, the ABCs come in handy as does the proper form for all the questions you’ll be asking.

How to Form Participles of Regular Spanish Verbs

Verbs are what breathe life and action into Spanish and every other language. Forming present and past participles in Spanish lets you talk in active present tense to say, “I’m dancing,” and about what you did last night: “I danced!” The following tables show you how to form present and past participles for regular Spanish verbs ending in –ar, –er, and –ir.

Forming Present Participles in Spanish
Ending	Verb Example	Meaning	Participle	Meaning
-ar	bailar	to dance	bailando	dancing
-er	comer	to eat	comiendo	eating
-ir	subir	to go up	subiendo	going up

Forming Past Participles in Spanish
Ending	Verb Example	Meaning	Participle	Meaning
-ar	bailar	to dance	bailado	danced
-er	comer	to eat	comido	eaten
-ir	subir	to go up	subido	gone up

How to Conjugate Regular Spanish Verbs

As in almost every language, in Spanish you have to conjugate verbs because you use a different form of the verb depending upon who you’re talking to, who you’re talking about, and when the action took place. Conjugating verbs in Spanish means giving them different endings. The following tables show the endings to change (they’re in boldface) for regular verbs ending in –ar and regular verbs ending in –er and –ir.

-ar Verbs: hablar (to speak)
Person	Present	Preterit	Imperfect	Future	Conditional	Present Subjunctive
yo	hablo	hablé	hablaba	hablaré	hablaría	hable
tú	hablas	hablaste	hablabas	hablarás	hablarías	hables
él, ella, Ud.	habla	habló	hablaba	hablará	hablaría	hable
nosotros	hablamos	hablamos	hablábamos	hablaremos	hablaríamos	hablemos
vosotros	habláis	hablasteis	hablábais	hablaréis	hablaríais	habléis
ellos, ellas, Uds.	hablan	hablaron	hablaban	hablarán	hablarían	hablen

-er and -ir Verbs: beber (to drink) and subir (to go up)
Person	Present	Preterit	Imperfect	Future	Conditional	Present Subjunctive
yo	bebo  subo	beb’  subí	beb’a  subía	beberŽ  subiré	beber’a  subiría	beba  suba
tú	bebes  subes	bebiste  subiste	bebías  sub’as	beberás  subir‡s	beber’as  subirías	bebas  subas
él, ella, Ud.	bebe  sube	bebió  subi—	bebía  sub’a	beberá  subir‡	bebería  subir’a	beba  suba
nosotros	bebemos  subimos	bebimos  subimos	beb’amos  subíamos	beberemos  subiremos	beber’amos  subiríamos	bebamos  subamos
vosotros	bebŽis  subís	bebisteis  subis	beb’ais  subíais	beberŽis  subiréis	beber’ais  subiríais	beb‡is  subáis
ellos, ellas, Uds.	beben  suben	bebieron  subieron	beb’an  sub’an	beberán  subir‡n	beberían  subir’an	beban  suban

How to Ask Questions in Spanish

When you’re trying to master a new language such as Spanish, you have a lot of questions. Plus, you need question words if you just want to ask for general information. The following table lists the questions you’re likely use:

Spanish Subject Pronouns

When speaking Spanish, the pronoun you use depends upon the person you’re speaking to and the person you’re speaking about. And, just as in English, you change pronouns according to person — I, you, he or she and we, you, they. The following table shows all the Spanish subject pronouns:

	Singular	Plural
1st Person	yo (I)	nosotros/as (we [male or mixed group/female])
2nd Person	tœ (you  [informal]); Ud. (you [formal])	vosotros/as (you [informal; male or mixed group/female]); Uds.  (you [formal])
3rd Person	Žl (he); ella (she)	ellos/as (they [male or mixed group/female])

Spanish Alphabet

The alphabet is the building block of any language, Spanish included. The following table goes through the pronunciation of each of the 27 letters of the Spanish alphabet, which is the same as the English ABCs except for the extra ñ:

a (ah)	b (bveh)	c (seh)	d (deh)
e (eh)	f (eh-feh)	g (Heh)	h (ah-cheh)
i (ee)	j (Hoh-tah)	k (kah)	l (eh-leh)
m (eh-meh)	n (eh-neh)	ñ (eh-nyeh)	o (oh)
p (peh)	q (koo)	r (eh-reh)	s (eh-seh)
t (teh)	u (oo)	v (bveh)	w (doh-bvleh bveh/doh-bvleh oo)
x (eh-kees)	y (ee gree eh-gah)	z (seh-tah)