Regular Present Verb Conjugation
In this post, I am going to be touching on subject pronouns and present regular verbal conjugation. If you know subject pronouns and verbal conjugation, you are able to finally construct a sentence and say some short sentences in Spanish.
There are 6 types of subject pronouns in Spanish as shown below.
| Subject Pronouns | Singular | Plural |
| 1st Person | Yo I | Nosotros/nosotras we |
| 2nd Person | Tú/*usted You | *Vosotros/vosotras/*ustedes you guys |
| 3rd Person | Él/ella He/she | Ellos/ellas they |
*Vosotros is mainly used in Spain, and it is replaced by “ustedes” most of the time in Latin America. Thus, you are not required to remember the vosotros conjugation, which will be included in the conjugation list if you intend to use Spanish spoken in South America. Also, even though usted and ustedes are the second person, they are going to be conjugated like 3rd personal pronouns.
As there is noun-adjective agreement, there is subject-verb agreement, “conjugation”. So, the form of a verb changes depending on the subject, mode, and tense in Spanish. First, we are going to talk about regular conjugation in present tense.
There are 3 types of verbs (-AR, -ER, -IR verb), and these names show the ending of the infinitive form of the verb. Regular verbs in each type share the same ending when they are conjugated.
In the present tense, verbs express what the person does habitually or talk about the facts.
Trabajar (-AR) to work (-o/-as/-a/-amos/-áis/-an)
| Yo trabajo | Nosotros trabajamos |
| Tú trabajas | Vosotros trabajáis |
| Él trabaja | Ellos trabajan |
Comer (-ER) to eat (-o/-es/-e/-emos/-éis/-en)
| Yo como | Nosotros comemos |
| Tú comes | Vosotros coméis |
| Él come | Ellos comen |
Vivir (-IR) to live (-o/-es/-e/-imos/-ís/-en)
| Yo vivo | Nosotros vivimos |
| Tú vives | Vosotros vivís |
| Él vive | Ellos viven |
Here are some exercise sentences that you can test how well you know the present regular conjugation. (The answers are at the bottom of this post.)
Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verb and a subject pronoun.
(1) ___ ______ (beber) leche todas las mañanas. I drink milk every morning.
(2) ¿ ___ no ______(comprender) las preguntas? Did you not understand the questions?
(3) La profesora de español ______ (enseñar) bien. The Spanish professor teaches well.
(4) Mis hermanos ______ (mirar) la televisión todos los días. My brothers watch TV every day.
(5) ___ no _____ (tener) hermanos. We don’t have siblings.
(6) Ya ___ no ______ (escribir) las cartas. They do not write letters anymore.
As a note. Unlike English, Spanish does not require subject except for the 3rd person because verb ending tells you who/what the subject of the sentence is.
(Yo) Como la cena a las ocho de la tarde. I eat dinner at 8 in the evening.
(Tú) Tienes un carro rojo. You have a red car.
(Vosotros) Estudiáis mucho. You guys study a lot.
(Nosotros) Somos estudiantes. We are students.
(1) yo bebo/(2) Tú comprendes/(3) enseña/(4) miran/(5) Nosotros tenemos/(6) ellos escriben