Verb

From Tomísimo

A verb (verbo in Spanish) is often described as an action word, but that is not a complete description of a verb, since verbs also describe states of being, among other things.

Classes of verbs

In Spanish there are three classes of verbs based on the verb endings: -ar verbs, -er verbs, and -ir verbs.

Verbs ending -ar

Verbs ending in -ar are the most common variety of verb in Spanish^{[citation needed]}. New verbs that are formed or that enter the language by word borrowing often are -ar verbs. Many new verbs end in -ear, for example cantinflear, which means to talk like the Mexican comedian/actor Cantinflas (to beat around the bush, to talk a lot without saying anything). -ar verbs are more of a class by themselves, while -er and -ir verbs often behave in similar manners. The vowels e and a are the characteristic ending vowels of conjugated -ar verbs.

Verbs ending in -er and -ir

The vowels e and i are the characteristic ending vowels of conjugated -er and -ir verbs.

Modals

Modals, helping verbs, and auxilliary verbs are all names for verb-like words that are used in conjunction with the main verb of the sentence to form certain verb tenses. Modal verbs have some of the properties of verbs, but do not behave like normal verbs.

Persent participles

Present participles or -ing words in English are used to form compound verb tenses. Gerunds have the same form as present participles, but are called gerunds when used as nouns. In Spanish these are known as participio presente or gerundio. They are formed from regular verbs by removing the last two letters of the verb and adding -ando to -ar verbs and -iendo to -er and -ir verbs.

Past participles

The past participle (participio pasado in Spanish) is also used to form compound tenses, and in Spanish the same form is often used as an adjective. They are formed from regular verbs by removing the last two letters of the verb and adding -ado to -ar verbs and -ido to -er and -ir verbs.

Tense

Verbs use tense or time to describe when an action or state of being takes place, such as the present time, in the past or in the future.

Mood

Verbs use mood to describe kinds of action or state of being. For example the imperative, the conditional and the subjunctive are moods.

Types of verbs

Transitive, intransitive, reflexive etc.

Verbs with prepositions

Several verbs use a preposition. It is generally a mistake, however, to assume that the same preposition used in English translates directly to Spanish.

For example, in English you say to look for, but in Spanish, that would be buscar not buscar por.

Here are other examples:

to attend = asistir a
to be about to = estar por
to consist of = consistir en

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