[...]... making the mistake of missing that e → ie change 24 practice makes perfect Spanish Irregular Verbs Up Close For the affirmative vosotros command, refer to the infinitive (the third of the six principal parts) and change the final -r to a final -d The stress falls on that last syllable, just as it does in the infinitive All Spanish verbs, no matter how irregular, form their affirmative vosotros command... mordiendo, mordido The Spanish verb system: An overview 5 21 puedo, puedes; 22 ; , mueres; 23 como, 6 practice makes perfect ; morí; ; comer; comí; comiendo, 24 rompo, 25 huelo, ; pudiendo, podido ; ; ; rompí; rompiendo, ; olí; oliendo, olido Spanish Irregular Verbs Up Close , Present system 1 ·2· Present indicative Imagine moving from left to right in our imaginary box representing the Spanish macrosystem... so that you can identify the irregular patterns EJERCICIO 2·1 Fill in the blanks with the proper form of the verbs in parentheses, using the present indicative In the case of reflexives, don’t forget to include the proper form of the pronoun in the blank 1 (poder) Los niños 2 (ser) Tú 10 practice makes perfect vestirse solos un estudiante muy talentoso Spanish Irregular Verbs Up Close 3 (decir) Yo siempre... conoces conoce 16 SUBJUNCTIVE conocemos conocéis conocen practice makes perfect conozca conozcas conozca conozcamos conozcáis conozcan Spanish Irregular Verbs Up Close The same holds true for Type 5 g-stem verbs, both those that have only a consonant change in the yo form of the indicative and those that also have a single vowel to diphthong irregularity following a shoe or boot pattern in the indicative... past, or passive, participle In order to reinforce the essential notion that 2 practice makes perfect Spanish Irregular Verbs Up Close the Spanish verb system is a macrosystem consisting of four microsystems, these forms should be separated by semicolons as shown by the following example of tener, a highfrequency and quite irregular verb Note how the systems, when written in list form, are separated... translations from English to Spanish, with some further instruction so as to elicit all four forms of you: tú, usted, vosotros, and ustedes All noun objects should be changed to pronouns and placed in the proper position, according to the rules presented here 26 practice makes perfect Spanish Irregular Verbs Up Close EJERCICIO 4·1 Translate the following commands from English to Spanish, taking special... of irregular stem patterns, this particular feature is regular with regard to the ending vowels in -ir verbs It is precisely the other changes that can happen in the stem or root of the verb—the part before the -ar, -er, and -ir—that make verbs irregular These are called stem changes Fortunately, even the irregularities fall into patterns and groups There are six possible ways in which verbs can be irregular. .. hijo/no ir/montañas mañana 30 Nosotros/buscar/película/ser/intrigante 22 practice makes perfect Spanish Irregular Verbs Up Close Present system 3 ·4 · Imperatives The imperative mood is the formal name for command forms—those forms that are used when one directly addresses a person, telling him, her, or them to do or not do something In Spanish, they are called mandatos, a noun derived from the verb mandar,... are encouraged to write your answers to the exercises in pencil or on a separate sheet of paper, since they bear repeating 4 practice makes perfect Spanish Irregular Verbs Up Close EJERCICIO 1·1 Fill in the blanks to supply the missing forms of the six forms of the following verbs Don’t worry—you’re expected to use some reference work to look these up At this point, the goal is to internalize the pattern... and moods! Next, let’s take a look at the Type 4 verbs whose only change in the indicative was a consonant irregularity in their yo form Into this group we also added those g-stem verbs that only had that consonant irregularity and no vowel changes in the indicative forms Just as with Type 3 verbs, in the present subjunctive of these verbs the consonant irregularity also appears in all six persons and . for learning Spanish verbs 85 Appendix B: Survival verbs 93 Answer key 99 This page intentionally left blank 1 The Spanish verb system An overview When you try to conjugate Spanish verbs, do you. and moods of Spanish verbs than with their morphology, or forms.  e book focuses on irregular verbs, which of course, means that we will have to contrast them with regular verbs along the. -ir—that make verbs irregular.  ese are called stem changes. Fortunately, even the irregularities fall into patterns and groups.  ere are six possible ways in which verbs can be irregular in