What do you do to remember conjugates?

Question

What is your learning method you do to put into memory conjugates when you are away from the computer? I would like to hear of others learning styles and possibly get more ideas to help me put spanish into memory more effectively.

Answer 1

It is just as in your native language. First you learn the grammar rules for the particular conjugation class, the mood, the tense, the person, but after exhaustive use you just start to recognize them as words.

In your native tongue when you read a verb in a sentence you do not stop to consider the root verb, the mood, tense, person, aspect, etc. You just recognize the word and what it means similar to how you would any noun, adjective, etc.

For instance, when I see the word "dije" I no longer stop to think that that comes from the verb infinitive Decir, a 3rd conjugation (IR) verb, that it is an irregular verb in some tenses, that it is 1st person, singular of the preterit past in the indicative mood. I just know that it means "I said". And whether it means I did say, I was saying or I said, just comes from context more than any grammar recall.

Assuming that conjugates refers to verb conjugations. I seem to recall several mathematical uses of the word conjugates like 45° and 315° being conjugate angles.

Thank you, that's very informative. - Gigirl24, Nov 21, 2011

Interesting points Q I agree with most of what you have said. When a child first learns their native language they learn by mimicking /imitating the sounds and then word patterns that adults use often making mistakes Toddlers will say daddy gone'' or - FELIZ77, Nov 21, 2011

''Want milk'' and by teh age of around 5 years will be able to say simple sentences with few grammatical errors and in some cases without errors - FELIZ77, Nov 21, 2011

Yeah, that's very true :-) - Gigirl24, Nov 21, 2011

Answer 2

Like the rest of Spanish, the best way to learn is by using conjugated verbs in whole sentences where the context helps you remember both the meaning of the verb and that particular conjugation.

Excellent idea:) - FELIZ77, Nov 21, 2011

Answer 3

I have tried learning by rote, it really doesn't suit me at all. I find the only way to really remember anything is by using it. While I am online I try to think of the correct conjugation for what ever I am writing then double check it in the conjugation tool. Slowly, very slowly, I find I am right more often than I used to be, at least when I am using the most simple tenses.

Eventually I hope that at least the most common ones will start to 'just sound right' as things do to me in English.

That a good point. I have a friend who lived in Italy for 4 years and told me he learned italian because he had not much of a choice and being put in a position to speak it helped him to learn it very fast. - Gigirl24, Nov 21, 2011

It's amazing what the mind can learn when a little pressure is applied to it, lol. - Gigirl24, Nov 21, 2011

Answer 4

Learn them and practise them by using them!

You could learn them either by writing them out and then making up example sentences to use them or verbally learning them by heart which is the method I have used It is much harder unless you have an excellent memory like I have

Either way you need to be using them to remember them.

I would strongly recommend that you start with learning regular verbs first which follow the AR ER and IR endings. and start with present indicative.

Examples of: AR regular verbs endings: o, as a , amos áis, an

Regular AR verbs

hablar = to speak

trabajar = to work

andar = to walk

esperar = to hope, wait (for,) expect,

ER regular verbs endings: e, es e, emos éis, en

Regular ER verbs

comer = to eat

beber = to drink

deber = to owe, must should (ought)

IR regular verb endings: o, es e, imos ís, en

IR regular verbs:

abrir = to open

partir = to leave, depart.

vivir = to live

I hope this helps

That's great thanks. You guys have every good examples. - Gigirl24, Nov 21, 2011

Answer 5

In my opinion any comparison to learning English verb conjugations is valueless because the structure of English verb conjugations is very simple compared to Spanish.

Just look at the verb "to be"

Present - am is are = 3 words

Past - was were = 2 words

Future - will be = 1 word.

6 words to remember.

How many for the same in Spanish for "ser" and "estar" ?

Answer 6

Does any one else have their method that works great for you?