Spanish Verb Conjugations: How to Master the Main Tenses.

Spanish verb conjugations are the most difficult task for Spanish students. In my experience I have often seen students who have come from other teachers and schools feel frustrated about this.

Why is this? Am I the best teacher in the world? Of course not. The point is that language teachers need to reflect on the language they teach. This process of reflection makes us understand the students’ difficulties in understanding it.

Spanish tenses correspond to logical explanations, and if students do not memorise them, but understand them well when they need to use them, success will be achieved.

Main tenses?

Well, let’s say that the main tenses are the tenses we use to express ourselves in the past, present and future.

Each of them has its own irregular verbs. The present tense is the first one we should learn when we start learning Spanish.

Regular verbs: Those that end in -ar/-er/-ir.
Irregular verbs: There are different kinds of irregular verbs. Those that change because of vowels, those that change the first person singular or those that change a consonant.

A few examples:
Hablar – regular verb – “hablo”
Dormir – irregular verb because of vowels – “duermo”
Caer – irregular verb only in the first person of singular – “caigo”
Oír – completely irregular verb – “oigo, oyes…”

Past tenses?

There are many past tenses in Spanish, but let’s focus on the most important ones: indefinido and imperfecto.

Imperfecto is used to describe the past, including talking about things we used to do.
Indefinido is used to talk about actions, not descriptions, and punctual facts.

Do we use all of them?

The answer is yes. It is very important to know well when we need to use each of them if we want to speak Spanish correctly.

Do I have to learn all Spanish verb conjugations?

Of course you need it if you want to speak Spanish. I once said that grammar is not the problem. The problem is some of the old methods that are sometimes used.

Grammar is very important for understanding how to use Spanish as a language. We cannot ignore it if we want to speak well. If you are a teacher, you know that we have to create different dynamics to get our students into the language.

How to master the main tenses?

We take the student step by step through each stage of learning. We know how to introduce the Spanish tenses in such a way that students learn them without having to go through a tedious and boring process.