Cannot conjugate verbs...

Question

Has anyone who took Spanish in classes over the years found that despite the years of classes, they can't conjugate every verb to every tense/mood?

I know many verbs but could not conjugate some of them for the life of me. I can't understand how I took classes for so long but still can't conjugate verbs.

I would say being unable to conjugate verbs is my biggest problem when it comes to Spanish. Missing words, eh. Mixing up articles, meh. But not being able to conjugate verbs is probably the #1 reason I cannot SPEAK Spanish.

Needless to say I'm super frustrated right now and looking for someone who's going through this too.

Hi lisaantonella. I am sorry to hear that. I do not have your problem, but I want to let you know that a lot of people who speak spanish don't know to conjugate many verbs. I still have problems with some verbs and I am native speaker. So keep it up. - juanmelgar, Feb 7, 2014

Try to practice with someone. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. listen to Spanish radio. Watch Spanish TV. Read news in Spanish. That will help you a lot. - juanmelgar, Feb 7, 2014

What method do you use to learn Spanish? How often do you practice? - NikkiLR, Feb 7, 2014

Answer 1

Don't worry too much. If necessary, use the present indicative and add the tiem ' ayer como' . Not correct but, ok, it's better than never saying anything.

Concentrate on the three easy speaking modes:1 present indicative. Learn them! No entiendo ¿ Que dices?

2 The past by using ' haber'. He hecho. He comido. ¿Has pagado?

3 The future by using ir a : ' voy a comer' ¿ Vas a pagar mañana?

These will be understood. Keep it simple. You will get confident!

I speak from experience of living in Spain whilst having learnt very, very little Spanish. It was possible. Ok, you can't tell anybody that you're sorry for yourself and home-sick and need an in depth analysis of Tolstoy by this method, but, it will come in time.

You can ask how their mother is, you can pay for things, you can ask if they want a coffee...You can fix up a meeting next week. Basics.

Thanks, but I've been trying to learn Spanish since I was 12...that really doesn't work for me. Also, I wanna be as eloquent in Spanish as I am in English and that's part of the problem. If I was a dummy in English I might be satisfied with crappy Spanish - lisaantonella, Feb 7, 2014

...but things being what they are, that isn't going to work. - lisaantonella, Feb 7, 2014

@Llsantonell , mate I am 80 and still struggling , my English is a bit suss also.You have a long way to go yet , just keep plugging away - ray76, Feb 8, 2014

So well said, Annier, that you should get a medal. These are the first three tense usages I learned, and after some careful speech analysis (in my mother tongue), I've come to realize that the majority of things we need to say are in the present, future o - Helado_eclectico, Feb 8, 2014

present perfect (the past is a handy addition to make you more interesting, of course). - Helado_eclectico, Feb 8, 2014

Answer 2

Lisa, I have been living in Mexico for six years now speaking almost only Spanish and I still have trouble with conjugating verbs. Not so much how to conjugate them, I can do that, but rather thinking fast enough to get the tense and person right all the time when speaking.

I find that in verbal conversation it is not really all that important and many mistakes are overlooked and the intent is understood by the context. And if there is confusion it is usually readily apparent by the response and you can then correct your error.

Concentrate on the present and past (preterite) and the verbs you use most. And if stuck quickly just use the infinitive. And as Annie said use other words to define the time frame. Most of the subjunctive usages are based on specific structures. The structure itself screams subjunctive so that the verb conjugation is almost redundant, not always but often. The key is to start talking and talking and listening. Once you start you will begin seeing the structures that the natives use in certain situations and you can then adapt them to your Spanish. Believe me, this works.

I think that sometimes my Spanish is simply terrible, yet every week I get numerous compliments on my Spanish from native speakers. Since I live almost entirely in Spanish I encounter many strangers in the course of a week and the compliments from them all keep me from getting too discouraged. Spanish is complicated; there are over 100 verb forms for every verb. There are a ton of tenses each with its own set of rules and each with a ton of exceptions. Every week I encounter new words and new verbs. For example just today I saw the verb "agobiar" for the first time. It is appropriate here as it means to overwhelm of to become overwhelmed.

Good luck with your Spanish. There will always be those who are better than you and those that are worse than you. You can only try to improve your ability day by day and not compare yourself to others.

Living in Mexico would help once I got over being terrified. Unfortunately, it's not an option for me. It would be amazing to live entirely in Spanish. Thanks for your kind words, but I don't know what I'm going to do, still. - lisaantonella, Feb 8, 2014

Answer 3

That is why some of us practice everyday on this game! Join us if you want. It has really helped me get the basics down. We are on our 2nd time through the list and now on a new list. Just click 'newest' and join in. The links show you the simple conjugation. You just practice. The pictures and images posted help me a lot to conjugate and remember the verbs. Here's the link to the 'game' of practice:

500 Verbs Practice

Answer 4

Juan is spot-on. Most languages are vaster than the range of everyday discourse. You really just need to learn the commonly used ones and learn others as you come across them. There are also many rules that can help you figure out verb conjugations when you don't have ready access to a dictionary.

Now for book suggestions. I have used the Practice Makes Perfect Spanish Irregular Verbs (a meh book for me, despite the rave reviews) and currently going through Spanish Verbs Made Simple(r) (this one is actually pretty good).

As Juan says, be brave and make mistakes. We all do. Don't give up.