Definition of 'Conjugation'; Conjugación in Spanish. Lesson for beginners.
Definition of 'Conjugation'
The act of inflecting, that is, changing the form of, a verb; or the resulting word when a verb is inflected.
In both English and Spanish, the purpose of conjugation is to indicate the number of the subject (singular or plural), tense (such as past or future), and mood (such as indicative, subjunctive or imperative). Spanish uses conjugation more extensively than English, so much so that it is often possible to omit the subject from sentences.
The act of inflecting, that is, changing the form of, a verb; or the resulting word when a verb is inflected.
In both English and Spanish, the purpose of conjugation is to indicate the number of the subject (singular or plural), tense (such as past or future), and mood (such as indicative, subjunctive or imperative). Spanish uses conjugation more extensively than English, so much so that it is often possible to omit the subject from sentences.
English uses methods other than conjugation to indicate the future tense and some other verb forms.
Examples of Conjugation
Spanish: Conjugations of comprar ("to buy") include compro ("I buy"), comprará; ("he/she will buy"), comprad (plural command form),* comprara* (subjunctive usage), and compraban ("they used to buy").
English: "Buys" is used for the third-person singular present, "buy" for other use of the present. "Bought" is used for the past tense. English uses an auxiliary verb rather than conjugation to indicate the future tense.
Comí un huevo. Comiste tres huevos. (I ate one egg. You ate three eggs.).
4 Answers
The simple definition of "to conjugate" is, "To put a verb into all of its forms." (and also to make each form agree with its subject.)
Of course the forms are different in each tense, so I will tell my students, "Conjugate the verb "terminar" in the present tense, and (hopefully) they will do it correctly. At a later date I tell them to conjugate, "terminar" or some other verb in the preterit or other tense, and they will do so.
If there are any beginners out there that are serious about learning to use Spanish verbs, I can think of no better way to learn than to go to SD's free Spanish course taught by Paralee Whitmire.
I have been listening to her teaching on present tense regular verbs and she goes at a really slow pace and gives the student a LOT of practice time.
This is a link to Paraee's Spanish courses
This is Paralee.
To conjugate a verb into its present tense forms you first remove the "ar", "er", or "ir" infinitive ending and replace it with the proper endings as shown in my chart.
We are only dealing here with verbs which are regular , irregular verbs
will come at a later date. Get these under your belt first.
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Try conjugating a verb without looking it up , a great way to learn.
