Present tense IR verbs


By now you know enough Spanish to begin learning how to conjugate verbs. Spanish has 3 types of infinitives, those that end in AR, ER, and IR. Every infinitive conjugates into the six persons-- three singular and three plural. In general, students memorize endings for each category and these can be applied to all regular verbs of this type.

Before continuing on to the endings of IR verbs, let's have a look at TENSE. The concept of TENSE tells the listener when the action takes place, such as now, later, yesterday, etc. For example, now I walk, later I shall walk, earlier I walked. The way the word "WALK" changes reflects the TENSE.

The PRESENT TENSE is taking place right now and conjugates three different ways, for example the verb "to eat". All three conjugations of TO EAT are in the present tense: I eat, I do eat, and I am eating (in general). If you were to place the word "NOW" in front of Each Conjugation, it would still make sense. That is how you know that it should be in the present tense.




VIVIR is the prototypical IR verb to start with.
And the endings for the present tense are as follows:
1st sg: O
2nd sg: ES
3rd sg: E

1st pl. IMOS
2nd pl: ÍS
3rd pl: EN




The general practice is to drop the IR off of the infinitive and add these endings to the root: VIV so that it should look like this:

1st sg: Yo viv + O = vivo
2nd sg: Tú viv = ES= vives
3rd sg: él, ella, UD. viv+ E=vive

1st pl. nosotros viv+ imos= vivimos
2nd pl: vosotros viv+ ís= vivís
3rd pl: ellos, ellas, uds. viv + en = viven

Remember: There are THREE ways to translate each present tense verb: Vivo= I live, I do live, I am living.


In the exercise that follows, provide the correct conjugation of the verb