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Castilian Spanish Verbs:
Revision after five lessons

A verb has a stem made up of a root followed by a stem vowel. The most common group of verbs (a-verbs) has the stem vowel a. Another common group (e-verbs) has the stem vowel e.

The following forms can be made by adding endings after the stem vowel:

Form ending a-verb:
cantar 'to sing'
stem cant-a-		 e-verb:
beber 'to drink'
stem beb-e-
Imperative singular (none) ¡canta! 'sing!' ¡bebe! 'drink!'
Imperative plural -d ¡cantad! 'sing (all of you)!' ¡bebed! 'drink (all of you)!'
Infinitive -r cantar 'to sing' beber 'to drink'
Present 2S 'you (singular)' -s cantas 'you sing' bebes 'you drink'
Present 3S 'he/she/it' (none) canta 'he/she/it sings' bebe 'he/she/it drinks'
Present 1P 'we' -mos cantamos 'we sing' bebemos 'we drink'
Present 2P 'you (plural)' -is cantáis 'you sing' bebéis 'you drink'
Present 3P 'they' -n cantan 'they sing' beben 'they drink'

The first person singular present ('I do') replaces the stem vowel with o:

Form ending a-verb:
cantar 'to sing'
stem cant-a-		 e-verb:
beber 'to drink'
stem beb-e-
Present 1S 'I' -o canto 'I sing' bebo 'I drink'

In the e-verbs, but not the a-verbs, the participles change the stem vowel from e to ie (active participle) or to i (perfect/passive participle):

Form ending a-verb:
cantar 'to sing'
stem cant-a-		 e-verb:
beber 'to drink'
stem beb-e-
Active participle -ndo cantando 'singing' bebiendo 'drinking'
Perfect/passive participle -do cantado 'sung' bebido 'drunk'

Position of the accent: Most of the forms above have the accent on the last syllable but one. All these forms end with a vowel or s or n. The last syllable but one is the usual position for the accent in such words, so no acute accent is written.

The imperative plural (-d) and infinitive (-r) both add consonants other than s or n to the end of the word. This shifts the accent to the last syllable, as is usual in such words. Because this the usual position for the accent, no acute accent is written.

The present 1P adds an extra syllable -mos to the root form. The accent shifts to one syllable later, so this is still the usual situation for the accent (it's on the last syllable but one). So the acute accent is not written.

The present 2P adds -is to the root form, which looks like it should be an extra syllable. Like the 1P ending, this also shifts the accent to one syllable later. But then, the final vowel of the root form contracts with -is to form a single syllable. This results in a word ending in s but accented on the last syllable, which is unusual. So the acute accent is written.

The imperfect: First, the change the stem:
With a-verbs, change -a to -ába.
With e-verbs, change -e to -ía.
After that, add exactly the same personal endings as for the present, except that the 1S has no ending:

Person ending a-verb:
cantar 'to sing'
stem cant-a-
modified stem cant-ába-		 e-verb:
beber 'to drink'
stem beb-e-
modified stem cant-ía-
1S 'I' (none) cantaba 'I was singing' bebía 'I was drinking'
2S 'you (singular)' -s cantabas 'you were singing' bebías 'you were drinking'
3S 'he/she/it' (none) cantaba 'he/she/it was singing' bebía 'he/she/it was drinking'
1P 'we' -mos cantábamos 'we were singing' bebíamos 'we were drinking'
2P 'you (plural)' -is cantabais 'you were singing' bebíais 'you were drinking'
3P 'they' -n cantaban 'they were singing' bebían 'they were drinking'

Position of the accent: All these forms are accented one the same vowel (the ab or the í), regardless of how many syllables follow. The í always has the acute accent written, to mark that it has its full vowel status before a.

The ab only has the acute accent written if the usual spelling rule for accents is broken. This only happens in the 1P.

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