Lesson Ten: Spanish verbs, the future and more on Tener (to have)

In this lesson we'll take what we've learnt and spot the patterns of verbs as well as look more at how to talk about the future and a great way to remember Tener

The 'to form' of verbs

So far we've looked at some tricks and methods to learn how to say some pretty complicated things in Spanish. Here's a quick recap including some verbs we've never come across before but you would know how to find them using the Thinking Method (find the 'tion' word in English, remover the 'tion', add an 'r':

Spanish	English
Ventilar	To ventilate
Separar	To separate
Saber	To know
Venir	To come
Segregar	To segregate
Simular	To simulate
Respirar	To respirate (to breath)

What we can see is that the 'to form' of the verb ends in 'r' - or more accurately in 'ar', 'er' or 'ir' while the I form (e.g. "I want") ends in 'o'.

Spanish	English
Quiero	I want
Debo	I owe / I must
Intento	I try

But as with all languages you will see some exceptions (a.k.a irregular verbs). Spanish has far few than English but they are there and we've seen one already:

Spanish	English
Voy	I am going

A quick note on verbs

I was never taught grammar at school, a strange quirk some years ago in the English teaching system. This makes it harder to learn a new language because I don't know the English words to describe a language!

But some people do and even worse they were taught rules which aren't really true such as "a verb is a doing word" which can't really be right because 'to be' is a verb.

So a better general rule is "if you can stick 'to' in front of the word then it's a verb" - to be, to stay, to go, etc.

And, as I said above, in Spanish they will always end in 'ar', 'er' or 'ir' when they are in their 'to' form:

• to ventilate (ventilar)
• to know (saber)
• to come (venir)

Getting the "I" ending of a verb

To change a verb to the "I form" - I ventilate, I know, I come - we take of the 'ar', 'er' or 'ir'and replace it with 'o'.

Spanish	English
Intentar	To try
Intento	I try

Now really important here is the other change. Where the stress is being placed on the word:

• Intentar
• Intento

In the 'to form' the accent is on the end, in the 'I form' its on the penultimate syllable.

Its not a complete disaster if you don't get this right straight away as you will be undersood but there are some areas where it will cause a bit of confusion. For example if you put the accent on the last syllable of 'Intento' while speaking you would be saying "He tried". It's written differently - 'intentó' - so you wouldn't make the same mistake on paper but its there as a possible trip up verbally.

However the more you practice and listen to Spanish the more you will hear and naturally start putting the accent in the right place. Listen out for it here:

Spanish	English
Donar	To donate
Dono	I donate
No dono	I don't donate
Crear	To create
Creo	I create

OK let's look at multiple forms of a verb:

Spanish	English
Comer	To eat
Como	I eat
Voy a comer	I'm going to eat

Tarde - late

The word for "late" in Spanish is 'tarde'.

Spanish	English
Tarde	Late

We can remember this from the English word "Tardy" meaning "delaying or delayed beyond the right or expected time; late" - e.g. "please forgive this tardy reply".

Spanish	English
Voy a comer tarde	I'm going to eat late

And the Spanish word everyone seems to know is 'mañana' - "Tomorrow".

Spanish	English
Voy a comer mañana	I'm going to eat tomorrow

Note that little wavy line above the first n. This tells us to pronounce the n as if it has a 'y' straight after it.

Using the present tense to talk about the future

This concept is true in English and in Spanish - "I'm eating tomorrow". "I am eating" is present tense but by adding a point in time ("tomorrow") we make this sound like the future tense.

Spanish	English
Como mañana	I'm eating tomorrow
Como con Pablo mañana	I'm eating with Pablo tomorrow

Quick Practice

OK, just a quick on to practice finding a verb in Spanish. If we want 'to organize':

• Find the 'tion' version in English - organization.
• Take of the 'tion' and add 'r' to get the Spanish verb 'organizar' - to organize.
• Replace the 'ar' with 'o' to get 'organizo' - I organize

Spanish	English
Organizar	To organize
Organizo	I organize / I'm organizing

Tener - to have

The Spanish verb for "to have" is 'Tener'.

Spanish	English
Tener	To have
Quiero tenerlo	I want to have it
Voy a tenerlo	I'm going to have it
Voy a tenerlo tarde	I'm going to have it late
Voy a tenerlo más tarde	I'm going to have it later

OK! That last one was new! 'Más tarde' means later but it actually means (literally) "more late" ... so now you know the Spanish word for "more"!

Now here is the thing about 'Tener'. It actually pops up in lots of Spanish words just as "tain" pops up in lots of English words.

Spanish	English
Contener	To contain
Obtener	To obtain
Sostener	To sustain
Mantener	To maintain
Entretener	To entertain

Just a quick note on that last one - 'Entretener' is actually made up of two words 'entre' and 'tener'. 'Entre' means "in between" so 'entretener' more literally means "between having"!

If you ever want to get into it you'll find many different languages have different ways of expressing the concept of posession. In English we say things like "I have" and "It is mine" and "It belongs to me". It is a one way relationship. Other languages don't have this in them and in Spanish we see a middle ground which suggests a two way relationship.

Yes, you can have something - 'Tener' but with the word appearing inside othe words like 'Sostener' and 'mantener' it reminds us that objects also owns us. In order to keep an object we must sustain and maintain it so in some ways it posseses us because we must to things in order to keep "having" it.

Tengo - I have

Right! We've hit the first irregular verb. There are actually very few irregular verbs in Spanish but generally speaking those verbs which are used the most are the more irregular ones and the way they are irregular is mostly regular!

So "I have" should be 'Teno' but it is actually 'Tengo'.

Spanish	English
Tengo	I have
Vengo	I come
Vengo mañana	I'm coming tomorrow

Lesson Eleven: Verb groups, ar endings and it