Spanish Grammar IGCSE

Present tense ending are:

" AR " verbs: o, as, a, amos, ais, an

" ER " verbs: o, es, e, emos, eis, en

" IR "  verbs: o, es, e, imos, is, en

The present tense is used for:

• The present time 
• Describing a habit
• General statements
• future intentions

NOTE: some irregular verbs have a special form in the first person:

• conocer     to know     conozco
• construir    to  build     construyo

The imperfect tense is formed by adding different endings to he stem of the infinitive:

" AR "  verbs: aba, abas, aba, abamos, abais, aban

" ER "  verbs: ia, ias, ia, iamos, iais,ian

" IR "   verbs: ia, ias, ia, iamos, iais, ian

The imperfect tense is used for:

• actions that happened regularly in the past,

i.e. what we used to do

• Descriptions in the past

2 verbs that are irregular in the imperfect tense:

• ir     iba,ibas,iba,ibamos,ibais,iban
• ser  era,eras,era,eramos,erais,eran

"A"     Translates as "at" when it refers to time or rate

"DE"     Translates as "of", showing possession, and "from", showing origin. It can also mean "by", "about" and "in"

"EN"     En means "in" and "at" of location

"PARA"     Para means "for" and "(in order) to" in the sense of destination or purpose

"SOBRE"     Sobre means "on(top of)", "above" or "over"

                     Sobre is also used to show an approximate time or number

There are two verbs which mean to  be in spanish:

• ser
• estar

For example:

soy  inglesa pero estoy en Espana.

SO.....

• Nationality                                                      
• apperance                use ser
• profession
• character
• mood
• health                        use estar
• position