In my 9 years helping students with Spanish verb conjugation I have seen several common mistakes. This is easy to confuse stuff and I am hoping this short piece can help with it. I will use the present tense and the verb “ser o estar”.
Understanding “it”
In English “it” is used to relate to anything but humans, people. For instance, we say “it is cold” to refer to a dog, cat or any other object or animal that might be cold.
Some English examples,
The cat is cold
The table is cold
The house is cold
However, when it comes to conjugating Spanish verbs student have a tendency to conjugate a cat or any other item as you or I. Instead students need to understand or think of items as males or females. This is why “it” is not used by Spanish speakers. The “he or she” conjugation form makes up for “it”. The key to conjugate “it” is to realize that anything but humans should be conjugated as he or she (actually, all items are related or “sense” as male or female for native speakers, this is why we are able to naturally determine whether an item is male or female without any previous knowledge or exposure to the item). For instance, think of “she or he is cold” and then conjugate the verb accordingly. Note how the adjective changes from male or female.
El gato esta frio (male and singular)
La mesa esta fría (female and singular)
La casa esta fría (female and singular)
If “it” is a cat and uses a verb like “cantar”, then
El gato canta
The third person conjugation is still used (the entire set is singular).
Now here is another common mistake. Suppose the noun is changed from cat to cats. Should the conjugation change? The answer is yes as now the items are plural and the conjugation should be done as per the “they” pronoun. Students usually stick to the “she or he” conjugation.
Los gatos estan frios (male and plural)
Las mesas estan frios (female and plural)
La casa esta fría (female and singular)
Los gatos cantan (male and plural)
Other words
Students usually have trouble conjugating include some, people, family etc.
Some student are smart = Algunos estudiantes son inteligentes
Because “some” is translated into a group of people (algunos, implying several) it makes the conjugation to be plural and therefore it uses the “they” conjugation. Note that if the English sentence changes to “algun” then the conjugation uses the third person (he or she).
Family is usually confused as plural as it implies a group of people. However this is wrong as it implies one group and not groups. Therefore, family is conjugated as per the third person. If you change to families, several groups, then you should change it to the “they” conjugation.
La familia canta
Las familias cantan
“People” is another word students usually confuse. “People” usually pops up in our minds as a group of people and we conclude it should be conjugated according to a “they” conjugation. However, “people” is a single group of people. For instance,”the American people”. This is only one group. It does not include the Mexican people or any other group of people. People should be conjugated as per the third person.
La gente americana
Las gentes americanas
Las gentes americanas cantan
What would you do?
So what if you come up with a word or item you need to conjugate and do not really know who to go about it? I suggest think of your English sentence. If you are conjugating as per the third person follow that lead. For instance, if you have something like “the family eats” notice that eats reflects a third person conjugation, as a result do the same in Spanish. This does not change between our two languages.
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