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BAST SPANISH

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© Samuel Haldane 2005-2006

Castilian Spanish Verbs:
Sound change: e becomes ie, o becomes ue
It is a regular feature of Spanish that in some but not all words, o changes to ue and e changes to ie in accented syllables. Compare the words below (the accent is written, even where it would not normally be written):

root mort- 'death': mu�rte 'death', mort�l 'deadly'
root hel- 'ice': hi�lo 'ice', hel�do 'iced, frozen'

In each example, the root vowel is changed from o to ue or from e to ie only when it is accented. But remember that this does not happen in all words. There are plenty of words with o and e in accented syllables, like f�rma, c�rdo, n�che, r�sto.

Verbs shift their accent a lot, so in verbs where this change happens, there is a mixture of forms with o and forms with ue. BAST sees verbs as a root followed by a stem vowel. According to this scheme, a root containing o may change to ue when accented. In the table below, each form is written two ways. First it is shown made up of it constituent parts in the form R-V-E (root-vowel-ending). Afer that the normal Spanish spelling is given.

Root vowel	Root in o		Root in e
Stem vowel	a-verb	e-verb	a-verb	e-verb
Infinitive	cont-�-r: contar	mov-�-r: mover	sent-�-r: sentar	perd-�-r: perder
Imperative singular	cu�nt-a- : cuenta	mu�v-e- : mueve	si�nt-a- : sienta	pi�rd-e- : pierde
Imperative plural	cont-�-d: contad	mov-�-d: moved	sent-�-d: sentad	perd-�-d: perded
Active participle	cont-�-ndo: contando	mov-i�-ndo: moviendo	sent-�-ndo: sentando	perd-i�-ndo: perdiendo
Present 1S	cu�nt- -o: cuento	mu�v- -o: muevo	si�nt- -o: siento	pi�rd- -o: pierdo
Present 2S	cu�nt-a-s: cuentas	mu�v-e-s: mueves	si�nt-a-s: sientas	pi�rd-e-s: pierdes
Present 3S	cu�nt-a- : cuenta	mu�v-e- : mueve	si�nt-a- : sienta	pi�rd-e- : pierde
Present 1P	cont-�-mos: contamos	mov-�-mos: movemos	sent-�-mos: sentamos	perd-�-mos: perdemos
Present 2P	cont-�-is: cont�is	mov-�-is: mov�is	sent-�-is: sent�is	perd-�-is: perd�is
Present 3P	cu�nt-a-n: cuentan	mu�v-e-n: mueven	si�nt-a-n: sientan	pi�rd-e-n: pierden
Subjunctive 1S	cu�nt-e- : cuente	mu�v-a- : mueva	si�nt-e- : siente	pi�rd-a- : pierda
Subjunctive 1P	cont-�-mos: contemos	mov-�-mos: movamos	sent-�-mos: sentemos	perd-�-mos: perdamos
Imperfect 1P	cont-�ba-mos: cont�bamos	mov-�a-mos: mov�amos	sent-�ba-mos: sentabamos	perd-�a-mos: perd�amos
Preterite 3S	cont- -�: cont�	mov- -i�: movi�	sent- -�: sent�	perd- -i�: perdi�

In every part of these verbs, the form taken by the stem vowel only depends on whether it is accented or not. If you had to memorise every form, that would be a lot of work, but you don't. Just rembeber the rule that the root vowel o becomes ue and e becomes ie when accented.

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