Part II How to Conjugate Stem-Changers in Spanish

Part II How to Conjugate Stem-Changers in Spanish Suzy S. Struggling with Spanish grammar? As youre learning how to conjugate verbs in Spanish, youll need to watch out for stem-changers! Heres an overview from Fairfax, CA tutor  Jason N... If you’re reading this now, it probably means you are well-aware of the importance of conjugation to use verbs to describe situations and events. And as youre learning a new language, like Spanish, this is essential to your progress! Conjugations enable us to form coherent sentences that specify the ‘who’ and ‘what’ of a particular action. This article  is part II  of a series of blog posts where Ill explain how to conjugate Spanish verbs so if you havent read that first one yet, do so now. If you have already read the first article, great! Now that you know about to conjugate basic verbs in present tense, next  Ill show you how to take your conjugation skills to the next level. This involves learning stem-changing verbs in Spanish. In all three conjugations of verbs (with ar, er, or ir endings) there are some verbs whose vowels change within the stem. Let’s go through some key vocabulary first. The word infinitive refers to the verb before it’s conjugated. The stem  of a verb usually refers to the first syllable of the verb in its infinitive form. Consequently, a stem-changing verb is when the stem changes from its infinitive to its conjugated form. The beginning three steps are the same as with the normal verbs: To understand stem-changer conjugations, we want to focus here on the stem’s vowel. These stem-changes occur in all of the five conjugation variants except nosotros or ‘we’ form (and vosotros if you’re in Spain), which both maintain their regular stem. There are  six types of stem-changers in Spanish: e ? i o ? ue e  ? ie i ? ie u ? ue* o ? hue *Note: We only implement the stem-change (u  ?  ue) in the verb jugar (to play) as most verbs with a ‘u’ in their stem aren’t stem-changers. How to Conjugate e  ? i Stem-Changers in Spanish Let’s go through the most common three. In this  example, the stem of the verb pedir (to ask for) is ped-. The key vowel here is the ‘e.’ The ‘e’ changes to an ‘i’ when it’s conjugated in the present tense, except for in its nosotros form. Pedir  (e ? i) Yo Pido Tú Pides Él/ella/usted Pide Nosotros Pedimos Ellos/ellas/ustedes Piden As you can see, the ‘e’ in the stem ped-  changes to an ‘i’ in all the five person variants besides nosotros. Not too difficult, right? How to Conjugate o  ? ue  Stem-Changers in Spanish Let’s try  another common one. Just like the ‘e’ in pedir changes to an ‘i,’ the ‘o’ in poder, from the stem pod-  changes to ‘ue,’ except, as always, in its nosotros form. Poder  (o ? ue) Puedo Puedes Puede Podemos Pueden How to Conjugate e  ? ie  Stem-Changers in Spanish Another frequent stem-changer is the ‘i’ to ‘ie.’ Let’s take, for example,  querer: Querer  (e ? ie) Quiero Quieres Quiere Queremos Quieren Lets practice with the following verbs: Medir (e  ? i) To measure Colgar (o  ?  ue) To hang up Cerrar (e  ?  ie) To close Aside from stem-changing verbs, many present-tense verbs have an irregular conjugation in their Yo form, in that it doesn’t follow basic tendency to end in ‘o’ at the end of the word after removing the ending (-ar, ir  or er), and instead ends in go. For example, hacer (to do or to make) in its Yo present form: o ? go Instead of conjugating hacer in its Yo  form as haco, we say, hago  to mean, “I do or make.” This is the same with venir and seguir. Spanish Verb Conjugation Practice Stem-Changers Now, practice with the following verbs in their ‘yo’ form: Not sure if youve quite got it? A Spanish tutor can help you flesh this out. Stay tuned for Part III when I show you about to conjugate verbs in their past tense. Post Author: Jason N. Jason N. tutors in English and Spanish in Fairfax, CA.  He majored in Spanish at UC Davis, lived in Mexico for 3 years where he completed a Masters degree in Counseling, and studied Spanish Literature and Psychology at the University of Costa Rica. Learn more about Jason here!   Photo by Matt-Richards Interested in Private Lessons? Search thousands of teachers for local and live, online lessons. Sign up for convenient, affordable private lessons today! Search for Your Teacher