Hola, I'm Jordan and this is a Spanish Quickie--fast, easy Spanish lessons from somebody who speaks
your language.
In this video, we're gonna go over real generally what an infinitive verb is and how to spot
them in Spanish.
Then I’ll explain what conjugation is.
We're not gonna get into specifics in this video, I just want to make this really clear
for you generally, right from the start.
I remember vividly, my first day of high school Spanish.
Right away, the teacher was using words like infinite and conjugation and was drawing tons
of crazy charts on the board.
That's probably why I failed Spanish originally.
I didn't even know what the infinitive or conjugation was in English.
I was doomed from the start.
This video, is all about helping you avoid that same fate.
[intro]
Okay, the infinitive verb.
The infinitive verb is the original form of a verb, before you conjugate it.
So what's conjugation?
Conjugation is when you take a verb and put in different forms, depending on the subject.
For example.
I eat.
You eat.
But he eats.
That's conjugation.
When you conjugate a verb, you take the infinitive of the verb and put it in different forms
like eat/eats.
In English, the infinitive form of a verb always has the word “to” and then the
word.
So "to work".
"To eat".
"To sleep".
The infinitive form of an English verb is “to” plus the word.
Real simple, but I don’t recall knowing that when I started Spanish.
Well, in Spanish, it works exactly the same way.
All verbs in their infinitive form end in either ar, er or ir.
If you see a bunch of Spanish words, any word that ends in ar, er or ir is a verb in its
infinitive form.
So "To work" is "trabajar".
See how "trabajar" ends in ar.
“To eat" is "comer".
"Comer" is an er verb.
Then, "to sleep" is "dormir".
Notice "dormir" ends in ir.
So there you have it, a verb in it's natural form so to speak, is an infinitive verb, it
has infinite possibilities because you haven't conjugated it.
Then to conjugate is when you put an infinitive verb in different forms based on the subject.
I'm purposefully avoiding giving you any examples of Spanish conjugation right now, because
that's opening a huge can of worms, it's not the point of this video, and your effort and
energy is better spent elsewhere right now.
Just know, it works generally like it does in English, you change the ending of the word
around depending on the subject...
but truthfully it's a lot more complicated in Spanish but somehow simpler too.
But like I said, don't worry about that now.
Just the infinitive form of a Spanish verb ends in ar, er or ir.
Then we change the endings of those ar, er and ir words when we conjugate.
Now, remember those crazy charts I mentioned in the intro of this video?
In the end, they weren't really that complicated, they just weren't explained to me very well.
Basically, to organize all the conjugations of a verb, whether it's English or Spanish,
we use a chart that looks something like this or like this.
Regardless of exactly how it looks, it will have two columns and three rows.
The left column is for singular conjugations.
I, you, he/she/it.
Then the right side is for plural conjugations.
We, you both, they.
Then the first row is for the first person which means I and we.
The second row is for the second person which is you (singular on the left and plural on
the right).
Finally the third row is for third person which is he/she/it or they.
Is that clear?
These charts are just a way to organize all the different forms of a verb when you're
learning them.
If you were learning English, you would put the infinitive form of the verb here at the
top.
To eat.
Then fill in the chart with the appropriate forms.
I eat.
you eat.
He eats.
We eat.
You both eat.
They eat.
Now, we don't always conjugate a verb.
Sometimes we use verbs in the infinitive form.
Spanish and English work exactly the same way in this case.
Have you ever noticed, in English, when there are two verbs next to each other, you conjugate
the first one but not the second one.
For the second one, you use the infinitive form.
Think about it.
I like to eat.
I like is the conjugated form of to like.
But to eat is still in the infinitive form.
A couple more examples: I like to sleep.
I want to be fluent.
Notice that last one?
To be.
That was tricky for me to get through my head at first.
"To be" is a very important verb, so important it will get it's own Spanish Quickie real
soon.
For now just know that I am, you are, he is, those are all conjugated forms of to be.
The infinitive form of that word is to be.
Then it's conjugated I am, you are, he is, etc.
This really confused me at first because the word “to be” was being thrown around left
and right in Spanish class and I couldn’t get it through my thick skull what the heck
that word was or how it was related to “I am” in any way.
Hopefully, now you won’t have the same problem.
But you might, and if you do, I’ll be here to help you through it.
Okay, that's it.
No homework assignment in this video.
I just really needed to get this off my chest.
Thanks for listening.
Just let this marinate a little bit, it will come in real handy in future videos.
Of course, as always, any vocab word mentioned in this video will be added to the Word Lists
at gringoespanol.com/downloads/
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Hasta luego!
That basically means “See you later!”