Step-By-Step Conjugations of Regular -ar Verbs

One aspect of learning Spanish that always throws English speakers for a loop is the method of conjugating verbs from their infinitive forms. If you are unsure what the terms "conjugating" and "infinitive" mean, then this lesson is a useful starting place for you before you embark on your journey through learning Spanish.

To conjugate regular -ar verbs, first start out with the infinitive form of the verb you want to conjugate. If you are unsure if the verb is indeed in the infinitive, then check to see if the ending is either -ar, -er, or ir. If it is, then follow this step-by-step pattern:

1)Drop the suffix (the suffix is the ending, which is either -ar, -er, or -ir). You are now left with the root.
2)Add a new suffix to the root to conjugate the verb. The suffix should match the correct subject pronoun.

For regular -ar verbs ONLY, the correct conjugated suffixes are:

	Singular	Plural
1st Person	yo: -o	nosotros: -amos
2nd Person	tú: -as	vosotros: -áis
3rd Person	él, ella, Ud.: -a	ellos, ellas, Uds.: -an

So for example, let's take the example of enseñar, which means to teach. Following our first step, drop the infinitive suffix -ar, so we're left with the root form enseñ-. After that, add the suffixes from above to match the correct subject pronoun. So, fully conjugated, we have the following complete sentences:

Yo enseño. I teach.
Tú enseñas. You teach.
Ella enseña. She teaches.
Nosotros enseñamosWe teach.
Vosotros enseñáis You (plural) teach.
Ellas enseñan They teach.