[Cam42]

How are past tense verbs conjugated? I never really grasped that in school last year, and this year we're jumping straight into it. Help?

[jengoesup]

In Spanish, before you conjugate in the past, you've got to determine which past tense you want to use: imperfect or preterite tense.

Imperfect is used for habitual actions, actions that haven't completed themselves...preterite tense is used for actions that had a definite end in the past. I would type more but I don't really have a lot of time. That should get you started, use Google for the rest.

[darfaz]

Preterite: (actions in the past that happen once, have a definite end)

Verbs ending in -ar

yo-é nosotros-amos
tú-aste vosotros-asteis
él,ella,Ud. -ó ellos/ellas/Uds. -aron

Verbs ending in -er/ir

yo-í nosotros-imos
tú-iste vosotros-isteis
él,ella,Ud. -ió ellos/ellas/Uds. -ieron

There are also a ton of irregular verbs in the preterite. Let me know if you need those.

Imperfect (repeated actions in the past, descriptions in the past, ongoing past actions)

Verbs ending in -ar

yo-aba nosotros-ábamos
tú-abas vosotros-abais
él,ella,Ud. -aba ellos/ellas/Uds. aban

Verbs ending in -er/ir

yo-ía nosotros-íamos
tú-ías vosotros-íais
él,ella,Ud. -ía ellos/ellas/Uds. -ían

[whynot?]

I only just di it at school, I cant remember what type of verb it is though
What you need to do is think of Infinative man. With a present tense verb, you pull off his underwhere (-ER, -IR and -AR endings) and put on trousers (endings according to who it is talking about).
With past tense, you need to KEEP HIS UNDIES ON. Put the trousers on the top (in this case, past tense endings).
You will need to find the appropriate verb tables with google, but it is simple because all the endings are the same for -AR, -IR and -ER verbs, so it should be easy.
Hope that helps

[Cam42]

.....what?

[darfaz]

Infinitive Man? My interest is piqued. Must be invented by the same teachers who came up with the SER bear. As a teacher myself, I follow the "whatever works" philosophy, and I'd like to know more about this.

[whynot?]

well, I have a teacher who uses infinitive man, and it works with year 8 students (like me) and keeps everyone interested. We use him virtually every lesson and he's always a laugh. I will post back ASAP with more details. I am in a bit of a rush at the moment.

[whynot?]

what's SER bear?
With infinative man, as I said earlier, is a guy. Say you have COMER, the ER bit is his undies. The COM bit is his shirt. When you congugate a verb in the present tense, when you are say I EAT, you take off his undies, the ER bit, and put on his trousers, which in this case is O. That makes COMO - I eat. When you do it in the Future tense, I AM GOING TO EAT, you take COMER, and you have to keep his undies on, you keep it as COMER when you conjegate it. I think, but im not sure what ending it is, but I think it becomes COMERÉ

[DaGeek]

Originally Posted by whynot?

what's SER bear?
With infinative man, as I said earlier, is a guy. Say you have COMER, the ER bit is his undies. The COM bit is his shirt. When you congugate a verb in the present tense, when you are say I EAT, you take off his undies, the ER bit, and put on his trousers, which in this case is O. That makes COMO - I eat. When you do it in the Future tense, I AM GOING TO EAT, you take COMER, and you have to keep his undies on, you keep it as COMER when you conjegate it. I think, but im not sure what ending it is, but I think it becomes COMERÉ

I actually think I really like that method. It's a humorous way to remember it. I'll have to keep that one in mind if I need to explain conjugations to anyone!

[darfaz]

Originally Posted by whynot?

what's SER bear?
With infinative man, as I said earlier, is a guy. Say you have COMER, the ER bit is his undies. The COM bit is his shirt. When you congugate a verb in the present tense, when you are say I EAT, you take off his undies, the ER bit, and put on his trousers, which in this case is O. That makes COMO - I eat. When you do it in the Future tense, I AM GOING TO EAT, you take COMER, and you have to keep his undies on, you keep it as COMER when you conjegate it. I think, but im not sure what ending it is, but I think it becomes COMERÉ

I can just picture myself teaching this to my students and having them say "Infinitive Man is going commando in the present tense!"

[whynot?]

Originally Posted by darfaz

I can just picture myself teaching this to my students and having them say "Infinitive Man is going commando in the present tense!"

We always say that it needs to be done really quickly so we dont see anything

[Skifree0813]

Infinitive Man just made it into my sig. That's definitely going to be used if I ever tutor again

[whynot?]

he works!
And to think i only posted about infinitive man because at the school i go to, we are told that if we cant teach it to someone else, WE DONT KNOW ABOUT IT ENOUGH, so now, all of you know about it. I know what, lets see if we can make this an international, I am British, most of you are americans, so it could happen!

[arojasq201]

he works!
And to think i only posted about infinitive man because at the school i go to, we are told that if we cant teach it to someone else, WE DONT KNOW ABOUT IT ENOUGH, so now, all of you know about it. I know what, lets see if we can make this an international, I am British, most of you are americans, so it could happen!

Dude, I am a spanish native speaker and I didn't understand what you're tryin' to say.......

[DaGeek]

Originally Posted by arojasq201

Dude, I am a spanish native speaker and I didn't understand what you're tryin' to say.......

Perdida en traducción, yo supongo . ¡Me alegra verte en esta sección del foro! Responderé a más temas en las cuales has dicho algo cuando pueda, pero al momento tengo que irme a guíar el grupo de jovenes en mi iglesia .