conjugations

Question

Any tips on learning verb conjugation charts?

Is it better to start with
the tense, ie 'presente' and go along the row, you know starting with 'yo' ie - 'a', 'as', 'a',
'amos' et cetera?

Or, is it better to start with the 'person' ie 'yo' and then follow the tenses 'down' starting with 'presente ie 'o', 'are' 'aba' et cetera?

Or is it best just to do whatever is easiest for you?
(I'm wondering now if this question makes any sense at all!)

Annie.

Answer 1

Thank you for you advice! I will remember it.

Answer 2

My advice:

Learn the conjugation for one tense (e.g. present indicative) for the three forms of the singular and the plural in order, and find good exercises to practice them, focusing on how to use them in context; you have to related the endings of a tense with their meanings. Start with the regular conjugation for verbs in -ar, -er and -ir, and then learn ir, ser and haber (most irregular ones), and move onto verbs of the type querer, poder, jugar, poner, and venir. The present tense is used for statements about the present, the future, and universal ones.

You might want to learn the "pretérito perfecto", which although it is not very used in America, is very easy to conjugate, and can be helpful if you can't remember an irregular past tense (of course, if you use it wrong, it will be wrong, but at least you'll be understood).

Then learn the preterite and the imperfect. These two are a bit of a headache for learners.

And so on, and so forth.