What is a key to learning to conjugate verbs?

Question

What is something that can help me with learning to conjugate verbs? Example: El y Ella ________ (beber) te`, Maria ___________ leche.

Answer 1

I find that I learn and remember quicker if I write things down, so when I was learning to conjugate I got a notebook and wrote several of each kind down in it. It helped me learn the regular ones fairly quickly and though I still have trouble with the irregular, I'm much more confident and they don't seem as mysterious.

Answer 2

Hi and welcome to the forum,

There really are no fancy tricks. Learning to conjugate takes some patience and repetition. I have found that practicing with home made flash cards works well. Try making up flashcards for two or three common verbs for each type of infinitive ending...ar, er and ir. After going over these several times each day, patterns will begin to emerge and it will be much easier.

Also, as you go throughout your day, think in Spanish as much as possible. Try to repeat what you or someone else is doing even if just to your self.

For instance:

Bebo leche./I drink milk.

Comes una manzana./You eat an apple.

The idea is to just start thinking of your every day activities and those of the people around you in Spanish. I have found that using examples from my own life is more effective than just random practice sentences in grammar books, although those work also.

Buena suerte

Answer 3

I find that speaking the verbs out loud when no one is looking works best for me - which is easy much of the time as I live alone.lol

Using/applying what you have learnt either in the chatroom, or better still, face to face with others who speak the language will help you, too

Other strategies that can help include;

1. Writing down what you are learning as this helps the learning to become audio-visual if we speak it out, too and re-inforces the information so we retain it more effectively

2. Putting verbs into sentences so that they have a proper context can be invalauble too which can even include copying out short phrases from books can help you to see how verbs are used idiomatically ( ie: metaphorically rather than literally)

However, there is no one method that will work effectively for everyone, so experiment and find out what works best for you !

enjoy learning

Answer 4

Hello, and welcome to the forum. There is a conjugation tool available from SpanishDict here. You just write in the infinitive form of the verb and it gives you all the conjugations. Please note that this is a learning forum, and not a doing-people's-homework-for-them forum, so we encourage you to use the resources available (like the conjugation tool) and give filling in those blanks a try yourself. If you have questions, we are happy to help.