Spanish verbs fall into different groups, and each group is conjugated a little differently. If you’re going to master Spanish verbs like entender, you need to be able to identify which group a verb belongs to: regular (follows regular conjugation rules for -ar, -er, and -ir verbs), stem-changing (morphs depending on how you use it in a sentence), spelling-changing (has consonant-spelling changes in some forms to follow pronunciation rules), or reflexive (reflects the action back on the subject of the sentence).
In the present tense, entender (ehn-tehn-dehr) (to understand/know about) has an e-to-ie stem change in all but the nosotros and vosotros forms. Here’s the present tense conjugation:
Conjugation | Translation |
---|---|
yo entiendo | I understand |
tú entiendes | You (informal) understand |
él/ella/ello/uno entiende | He/she/one understands |
usted entiende | You (formal) understand |
nosotros entendemos | We understand |
vosotros entendéis | You all (informal) understand |
ellos/ellas entienden | They understand |
ustedes entienden | You all (formal) understand |
The following examples show you entender in action:
¿Entienden lo que decimos? (Do you understand what we are saying?)
Sí. Lo entendemos muy bien. (Yes. We understand it very well.)
And that’s the end of entender’s stem change; it conjugates normally in the preterit, imperfect, and future tenses. Take a look at the following tables and examples:
Conjugation | Translation |
---|---|
yo entendí | I understood |
tú entendiste | You (informal) understood |
él/ella/ello/uno entendió | He/she/one understood |
usted entendió | You (formal) understood |
nosotros entendimos | We understood |
vosotros entendisteis | You all (informal) understood |
ellos/ellas entendieron | They understood |
ustedes entendieron | You all (formal) understood |
You use the preterit tense like this:
¿Entendió tu hermano esa lección? (Did your brother understand that lesson?)
Sí. Mi hermano y yo entendimos esa lección. (Yes. My brother and I understood that lesson.)
Conjugation | Translation |
---|---|
yo entendía | I used to understand |
tú entendías | You (informal) used to understand |
él/ella/ello/uno entendía | He/she/one used to understand |
usted entendía | You (formal) used to understand |
nosotros entendíamos | We used to understand |
vosotros entendíais | You all (informal) used to understand |
ellos/ellas entendían | They used to understand |
ustedes entendían | You all (formal) used to understand |
Here are some examples of the imperfect tense:
Mis padres me entendían mucho. (My parents used to understand me a lot.)
Nos entendíamos sin palabras. (We used to understand each other without words.)
Conjugation | Translation |
---|---|
yo entenderé | I will understand |
tú entenderás | You (informal) will understand |
él/ella/ello/uno entenderá | He/she/one will understand |
usted entenderá | You (formal) will understand |
nosotros entenderemos | We will understand |
vosotros entenderéis | You all (informal) will understand |
ellos/ellas entenderán | They will understand |
ustedes entenderán | You all (formal) will understand |
The following samples put the future tense to work:
¿Entenderás la novela? (Will you understand the novel?)
Por supuesto que la entenderé. (Of course I will understand it.)