I Need Hellp remembering My Tenses!

Question

I find it very difficult because of all the tenses and plurals of the verbs, ANy hints or do I just have to study!

• I'm assuming your a student, so if you are not sorry but what I said could still apply to you aside from the asking questions in class. :) - Jason7R Sep 12, 2009

Answer 1

I would simply study a few at a time and then USE what you have learned in simple sentences. Speak with others who are studying and I would definitely try to speak with native speakers. The more you use it the less you lose it. Ask questions in class and don't be afraid to take a risk. Good luck!!

Answer 2

One good way is to think of it as a game. Take any word and change it...like you are playing a game. Vengo. Voy. Fui. Tenga. Tengo. Tenia. Just think of it as a word game. It's much easier that way, and much more fun, too!

Answer 3

Pay attention to things you easily remember and things you struggle more with, look for patterns, links, and exploit them. Create new links, so you're not just trying to learn a word at a time, but give that word something in common with some other words, and learn in groups. The great thing about how our brains work is that the links you create between memories don't have to be anything to do with the memories you're linking. If you find yourself to be a visual person, then create arbitrary visual clues, such as writing infinitives on cards, or create documents on the computer, and group them by colour. For example, you may have stem changing e->ie verbs all on blue card, with maybe 5-10 on each card, all e->i verbs on green, go go verbs on yellow. At the top of each card with the list of words on, write the rules that apply to conjugating each word in that colour group, and start learning from them. Don't stick to a single group for too long, as changing group will draw your attention more to the fact that the colours are different.

When your brain starts linking the things you're learning with the colour you're learning it off, it will start affecting your recall, so when you start thinking of blue words, your brain will start firing at other memories linked via the blue, and you will find it easier to retrieve this related information.

This works because storing things into your memory is pretty easy... the harder bit is the recalling of it. Each time you practice storing and recalling, you strengthen the links to it, making it easier to fire across the links and recall the memory. But, if you're only learning one to one mappings (eg, to have -> tener -> tengo -> tiene etc) that's only one link you have to rely on to get to each bit. If you also have that it's blue, or yellow (or perhaps a new colour for verbs that are e->ie stem changing and go go), then you have two links, and if you're remembering both things at the beginning of the links ("to have" and blue) then your ability to recall that correct memory in effect doubles... as well as the fact that the rules for conjugating them are connected from the word and the colour, increases your abilty to recall those also.

Play with the number of words you write on each card... have some with 5, some with 7, some with 10, and see what difference that makes, to find the optimal number for yourself. Group words on a card by other patterns you find in the word, for example, putting together decir, maldecir, bendecir... that gives you yet another link to those -decir words.

So to sum up, the more links you establish and build into your learning, from links actually in the word, to links you create yourself, the easier you should find it.