using duolingo

Question

i was on this spanish learning thing called duolingo, and it said 'i eat' 'yo como' was a conjuction??? im really confused... it is really good generally, but i dont understand this, isnt it a verb?

This is the verb comer "to eat" not como "how". - Hankhankali, May 8, 2015

Answer 1

The word "como" can mean "I eat" but it is also a subordinating conjunction meaning "as, since, like". With the meaning of "since or because" it must appear at the start of a sentence. For example:

"Como no tienes bici, tienes que caminar" "Since you don't have a bike, you have to walk"

The conjunction "como", in the sentence above, just happens to have the same form as the 1st person present indicative of "comer".

Cheers

Así es. Entonces cuando tengo mucha hambre, como como león - 005faa61, May 8, 2015

Thanks, Julian, I have edited the post - padrin, May 9, 2015

Answer 2

Yes, it's a verb and a conjugation.

'Conjugation' is the grammatical term used to describe what you do to a verb in order to assign it person, number, and tense/mood.

If you're talking about nouns, then the (approximately) equivalent term is 'declension'. Verbs conjugate and nouns decline. However, while verb conjugation is relatively complex in Spanish, non declension is very straightforward (compared with some other languages, e.g. Latin), thus the term declension is quite rare when describing Spanish (I think).

Yo como is the first person singular conjugation of comer in the simple present tense.

Ustedes comieron is the second person plural conjugation in the past preterite tense, for example.

i meant conjunction not conjugation... i think it meant 'how', but oddly translated it as 'i eat', because 'how' is a conjunction... i think it's just a blip on duolingo. thanks for your answer - EleanorHeaps, May 8, 2015