Remembering Verb Conjugations

Question

Is there an easy way to remember all the different conjugations of a verb??? Or do you just have to recite them to yourself so that you can remember them?

Answer 1

You read a lot. Then you recognize the conjugations as words just as you do in English. When you see the word "went" in English you do not think about "go/went/gone."

Answer 2

The more you practice with the conjugations, you will see the forms for the "ar" and "er" " ir" verbs are quite consistent, Once you understand the patterns the verbs take in their respective forms, you will be able to conjugate most verbs easily.

Even the "irregulars" follow regular patterns, these require memorization at first but soon will fall in place.

Answer 3

Quentin and Pacofinkler have mentioned the two basic approaches (learning specific forms in context and brute force memorization of conjugations). Both approaches are valid although neither, by itself, is ideal.

Treated as an exercise in memorization, regular verbs do not present all that much difficulty. Adding irregular verbs certainly complicates the picture but is still a manageable task. This sort of memorization will let you recognize verb forms when you encounter (read/hear) them. Compared with the task of quoting baseball statistics for most players of most major teams over, say, the last ten years (which many kids seem to manage with almost no effort), verb should be a "walk in the park".

The problem of using the appropriate verb form in conversation is closer to Quentin's suggestion. Obviously, one needs to know the form. However, in a conversational setting, one cannot be searching through ones memory for the appropriate form. To ask "What's the 2nd person singular, present subjunctive of 'hablar'? would be fatal to a conversation.

Children learn their own language piecemeal (a form/construction here and another there with no systematic approach). Adults can benefit from a more organized approach (to a certain extent). However, the end goal, is the same: to produce/recognize verb forms/syntactic constructions without hesitation.

Answer 4

Es una cuestión de práctica...Cuanto más los uses, más recordarás