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Lesson 19: Working backwards to find verbs and genders

Sometimes we won't have the 'to form' of a verb but we might have a different form (like 'we'). With this we can often work out the 'to form'.

We'll also see how to spot clues in a sentence that might tell us if a word is masculine or feminine!

Vamos

In the last lesson we covered 'vamos' ("we go") which you will hear everywhere in the Spanish speaking world because it also means "Let's go!".

You might also hear 'Vámonos' which means "Let's leave this place" or "Let's get out of here" but 'Vamos' is the more common.

So considering the following rule:

So if we see 'hablamos' ("we speak") we can remove the 'amos', glue the 'ar' back on and we have 'hablar' ("to speak")/

If we wanted "He speaks" we would remove 'amos and add 'a' to get 'habla' ... and so on. So instead of building the verb using the rules we have covered to find each form from the 'to form' we do it by going backwards from one form.

This trick is only truly reliable if we have the 'we form' of a verb in the present tense because here it is clear which verb type it is (ending 'ar', 'er' or 'ir') and we know any 'o' or 'e' at the start has not split into 'ue' or 'ie'.

But if you were really stuck you could do it with any form and you would probably get close enough to be understood (or get at least a half mark in an exam!).

This system works in most cases but, as with any language, there are irregular verbs, some more than others.

In the case of 'vamos' we can all the other forms except the 'to form' (which is very irregular):

I said it was a system for when you are stuck and it is useful to practice thinking out verbs but watch out for the exceptions.

If you follow these rules to get "I go" you would get "vo" which is not correct! But it's not completely wrong either and you would probably be understood - you might even get a half mark in an exam. So as I said its a good system and it will get you all of the way most of the time but its not absolute.

The correct form of "to go" in the I form is 'Voy' and we mentioned in an earlier lesson that we can remember this by thinking of the English word "voyage".

SpanishSpanishEnglishEnglish
Va he/she/it/you (formal) go(es)
Vas you (informal)
¿A dónde vas? Where are you (informal) going?
Van They go
Voy I go

Ir - to go

I said the to form of "to go" is wierd and it really it - 'ir'. There are historical reasons for this with the to form having its roots in one language and all the other forms coming from a different place.

SpanishSpanishEnglishEnglish
Ir to go
Quiero ir I want to go
Puedo ir I can go
Debo ir I must go
Tengo que ir I have to go
Tengo que ir ahora I have to go now

Esta noche - to night

The word for "tonight" in Spanish is 'Esta noche' but more literally this means "This night" so 'Esta' means "this".

SpanishSpanishEnglishEnglish
Esta noche Tonight
Tengo que ir esta noche I have to go tonight

Now I said 'esta' meant "this" but actually this is only for feminine words. For masculine words its 'este'

But what we are seeing here again is this association between feminine and 'a'. We had it in 'la' for "her", we said if a word ends in 'a' it is usually feminine, we say 'ella' ("she") sends in 'a' ... and there will be more 'a' connections to come.

Sometimes we might not know the gender of the word but we can discover it when we listen. For example in 'Esta noche' we see "this" ends in an 'a'. So if we say or heard that and we need to reply with a sentence that included "the night" we would know to say 'la noche'.

SpanishSpanishEnglishEnglish
La noche The night

This method of finding the gener is especially useful because although most words that end 'a' are feminine other words are to and when it comes to words that end 'e' (like 'noche') there is actually no way of knowing. And of course there are a handful of exceptions where words ending 'a' are masculine!

Carne

I haven't put the English in the description above because this is a good example of guessing out a word. What does it sound like or what part of a word does it sound like?.

The answer is "carnivorous" (meat eater) so 'carne' means "meat" and this is a great way to remember it. Its also another one of those 'e' ending words that is feminen

SpanishSpanishEnglishEnglish
Carne Meat
La carne The meat
No como carne I don't eat meat
No como carne y no tomo alcohol I don't eat meat and I don't drink alcohol
Como carne y tomo alcohol I eat meat and I drink alcohol
Lesson 20: Using the present tense to describe future events