[El Gato]

Originally Posted by Rusty

Verb conjugation is something you should start learning now. It is daunting. No question about it.

There are only three types of verbs. The endings are -ar, -er and -ir. The verbs you saw that end in '-se' are pronominal verbs. The suffixed pronoun '-se' represents the third-person reflexive pronoun used with pronomial verbs. During conjugation, the appropriate reflexive pronoun (it won't always be 'se') is utilized. In most conjugations, the reflexive pronoun precedes the verb.

Verb conjugation is usually tackled one tense at a time. Start with the present indicative tense. (Indicative is one of several moods.) Make sure you fully understand the difference between first, second and third person. You'll also have to worry about singular and plural forms for each person. The verb endings will vary accordingly.

After the present tense, move on to the imperfect and preterite tenses (both past tenses in the indicative mood). Every tense has three persons, in singular and plural forms.

Verb conjugation charts are available in several places, including right here in our forums.

Tackling it one tense at a time is helping. I'm using hablar as a template for -ar verbs, comer for -er verbs and escribir for the -ir verbs. Most of the time I've been able to conjugate correctly with other regular verbs I've checked.

Irregular verbs are going to be tough but I'll worry about those once I've got a couple more tenses down (and reinforced the present tense with more practice).