The Regular Present Tense: Formación

As you already know, there are three types of verbs in Spanish.  They all end in either AR, ER or IR, and the conjugation (forms) of the verb depend on this ending, among other things.

Verbs are conjugated in Spanish based on the tense and subject.  In this unit we are studying the present tense, so all we have to determine now is the subject to figure out the correct form of the verb.  The subject is either singular (one person or thing), or else it is plural.  The subject is also either first, second* or third person.  The following is a chart of the different "persons" and the corresponding subject pronouns that might be used.  (If a pronoun is not used, you will have to determine which pronoun would be used.)

*Remember that there are two "second persons" - familiar and formal- in Spanish. Click to review.
 
 

Person
Singular
Plural
first
yo
nosotros
nosotras
second-familiar
vosotros
vosotras
second-formal
usted (Ud.)
ustedes (Uds.)
third
él, ella
ellos, ellas

So now that we can easily determine the subject, and since we already know the tense, we can conjugate the verb.  Conjugation of regular verbs is quite simple.  Drop the infinitive ending (AR,ERor IR), and add the ending based on the chart below.
 
 

Subject
AR
ER
IR
YO
O
O
O
AS
ES
ES
ÉL, ELLA, UD.
A
E
E
NOSOTROS/AS
AMOS
EMOS
IMOS
VOSOTROS/AS
ÁIS
ÉIS
ÍS
ELLOS, ELLAS, UDS.
AN
EN
EN

For this section of this unit, since it is so much review and so little new, go straight to studyspanish.com and do the reading and activities offered on this link.  On this page there is a list of common regular verbs.  Copy this list into your notebook, with meanings of course.  Choose five from each category and write a sentence for each- try to vary the subjects as evenly as possible.  When you are certain you are comfortable, take the test for this unit.  (Regular Present Tense at studyspanish.com)