What are all the present forms?

[espancreol]

Hello,

I am in Spanish 4 honors and I have no idea about spanish. I need help.

What are the present forms? progressive, indicative, I have no idea!!!

Can you guys tell me what tenses and things I should get down for the class, like imperfect, preterite etc.

thanks
john

Also, is there a list of common vers that are irregular in PRESENT

[Rusty]

Welcome to the forums, John!

Whoa there!
Your questions are way too broad and the answers way too lengthy.
Could you narrow things down a bit?
How is it that you're in your 4th year of Spanish without knowing the present tense?

You mentioned indicative. That is the mood that deals with real events that can be placed in time (past, present and future).

The past indicative has two tenses - the imperfect and the preterite (also spelled without the final 'e'). These are very important tenses to know so that you can tell somebody what was happening or what happened. If we were to conjugate "comer" in those tenses, the English "I was eating" is "yo comía" (imperfect tense) and "I ate" is "comí" (preterit tense).

The present indicative tense is used for the present and for the immediate future. Using "comer" once again, 'I eat', "I'm eating", and "I'll be eating (immediate future)" would be said "como".

The future indicative tense is used for future events. "I'll eat (not so immediate future)" is "comeré".

The present progressive is used to describe an event that is currently in progress. "Estoy comiendo" = "I'm in the process of eating".

The other moods are the conditional, the imperative, and the subjunctive.

The conditional mood is used when something is contingent on another event. "I would eat if ...". "Yo comería si ...".

The imperative mood is used when giving a command. "Coma" = "Eat".

The subjunctive mood is used when the real world is left behind (emotion, volition, doubt, contrary-to-fact, etc.).

A list of irregular present-tense verbs would be too lengthy. There are classifications, and many verbs fit into them.

[Tarential]

Excellent post, Rusty. That is by far the easiest to understand and most concise explanation of the material I've yet encountered. It's so simple that I don't understand why they didn't include it as a handout on the first day of Spanish 101 (the only class I've ever taken, as it happens). Our teacher stuck to present indicative tense and refused to explain anything else.

[espancreol]

Hey!

Thank you so much for that informative response. I'm sorry that I responded five days later, I have been so busy.

Well the reason that I am not to sharp with Spanish right now is cause I had a really lazy teacher two years in a row and I really forgot a lot about Spanish, and he gave me As without me really doing anything so the teacher he look good hence I really didn't learn.

But anyway, let me get this straight, there are five moods: Indicative, Progressive, Conditional, Imperative and Subjunctive.

The Indicative, which is really the main mood has four tenses: Present, Preterite, imperfect and future?

Could you tell me the tenses for Imperative, conditional, subjunctive and progressive?

Also are those all of the Spanish moods?

I have past perfect and present perfect in my notes, what are these?

Thank you so much for your help. I have ben lost in spanish before that reply.

John

[Perikles]

I'll have a go.

A verb has five attributes:

Person (3) - 1, 2, or 3
Number (2) - singular, plural
Tense (7) - Present, Future, Future Perfect, Past Preterite, Perfect, Imperfect, Past Perfect
Mood (5) - Indicative, Interrogative, Subjunctive, Conditional, Imperative
Voice (2) - Active, Passive

This means that in theory a verb can take 3.2.7.5.2 variations, = 420 forms. In practice, there are not nearly as many because a lot of combinations do not exist.

My advice would be to visit a website which explains these attributes in English, which is remarkably similar to Spanish, except that the subjunctive mood is used much less. Once you have got the patterns identified in English, you can apply them to Spanish.

[irmamar]

Maybe this link (http://www.verbolog.com/conjuga.htm)is useful. :)

[espancreol]

I'll have a go.

A verb has five attributes:

Person (3) - 1, 2, or 3
Number (2) - singular, plural
Tense (7) - Present, Future, Future Perfect, Past Preterite, Perfect, Imperfect, Past Perfect
Mood (5) - Indicative, Interrogative, Subjunctive, Conditional, Imperative
Voice (2) - Active, Passive

This means that in theory a verb can take 3.2.7.5.2 variations, = 420 forms. In practice, there are not nearly as many because a lot of combinations do not exist.

My advice would be to visit a website which explains these attributes in English, which is remarkably similar to Spanish, except that the subjunctive mood is used much less. Once you have got the patterns identified in English, you can apply them to Spanish.

Thank you, that is very helpful.

So how many irregular verbs are there for present indicative?

Also, what types, like stem changing or just irregular, or are basically all irregular verbs stem changers?

Thanks

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@espancreol: I don't know if anyone can answer such questions. As Rusty has said, there are a few classifications for conjugation types, but I guess the right way to learn them will be a conjugation manual (http://www.amazon.com/Conjugacion-Lengua-Espanola-Editors-Larousse/dp/970221355X/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1285193648&sr=8-1) (not the kind with 500 verbs, which is as trying to learn by heart the logarithm tables to learn exponential functions), and exercising conjugation of the verbs you know, so you'll start developing a feeling for that.

[Rusty]

There are many irregular present tense verbs. I wouldn't think that there is a complete list of them all anywhere. They are grouped into different types, as you have already learned, and a good dictionary will help you know whether a verb is irregular and in which tenses (the present tense isn't the only one with irregular conjugations).

There are many sites to help you learn about these. This one (http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/stemue.htm) talks about irregular verbs in different units. The link will take you to the first mention of irregular stem changing verbs in the present tense.

[vita32]

@espancreol,

To see examples of the different tenses and mood and to learn the names of these tenses/moods in Spanish try this site's verb conjugator which is displayed when you first come to the site or click the "Dictionary" on the very top of this screen page and follow the instructions given there. You have to do research via web to find the difinition of each verb tense and mood. They're all there or here on the web. Just needs finger work to google and search. Good Luck!

[irmamar]

Vita, I think you forgot the link. ;)

[vita32]

Vita, I think you forgot the link. ;)
@irmamar:)
Ok, I'll try to post the links to the sites that I've used (I hope it's ok by Tomisimo): http://www.intro2spanish.com/verbs/tns-ind-future-01.htm
http://www.verbix.com/webverbix/
http://www.irregularspanishverbs.com/blog/148/spanish-verb-tenses-explained/
http://spanish.speak7.com/spanish_subjunctive.htm

I almost forgot, here's another good one: http://www.spanishbooster.com/SpanishCompoundVerbTenses.htm

I was hesitant to post the links because they're too many. I hope these help.:)

[Awaken]

I'm sorry to hear you are so far behind. For high school Spanish 4 Honors, we regularly used the 4 main tenses mentioned by Rusty, so make sure to learn when to use those (usually in the indicative mood). Like English, there are a good amount of rules that just take some time to get used to. As was mentioned, learning all the common irregular verbs by memorization is a daunting task. To be honest, while this forum will help you, you should probably get some study materials and study up a lot. Then ask us specific questions when you don't fully get something in your books.