Spanish Verbs – Which SpanishVerb is the Most Important?

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Spanish verbs are difficult to learn, or rather learning the conjugation of Spanish verbs is. Difficult or not, the learning of Spanish verbs is unavoidable as they are an integral part of the Spanish language as are verbs to any language. But which verb should we deem the most important in the Spanish language?

Spanish verbs are probably the most difficult and the most complex areas of the Spanish Language. Spanish verbs are split into 3 main groups, those verbs that end in -ar, -er and -ir, each of the verbs in these verb groups has multiple endings to indicate who or what is performing an action. There are also numerous irregular verbs that follow their own specific verb pattern that must also be learnt and many of these are used frequently in everyday conversation such as; to be and; to have.

The complexities do not stop there because there are 16 different tenses that are each conjugated differently, these 16 tenses are split into 8 simple tenses and 8 perfect (compound) tenses and it is these perfect tenses that should give you a clue as to the verb many, including myself, deem to be the most important verb in Spanish. There are four distinct types of Spanish verb and they are; regular, irregular, reflexive and auxiliary and there is one specific auxiliary verb that is used with the past participle of every single verb in Spanish in each of the 8 perfect tenses. That verb of which I am writing about is haber meaning to have.

Understanding, and knowing, the various conjugations of haber will make it possible to use verbs more extensively. The perfect tenses are those tenses that describe a completed task, for example: I have been; I had been; I was; I will have been and, I would have been, are all perfect tenses that will use haber as an auxiliary verb.

In both English and Spanish, the perfect tenses are formed by using haber, followed by the past participle (el participio in Spanish). In English, the participle typically is formed by adding -ed to the end of verbs; the Spanish participle, which has origins related to the English participle, typically is formed by adding -ado for -ar verbs and -ido for -er and -ir verbs.

The verb tense in the perfect tenses is decided by which simple tense of haber is being used: for example if we said: I have eaten and I will have eaten the only way to distinguish between the two would be the tense of the auxiliary verb being used; I have eaten = he comido and I will have eaten = habré comido.

It isn’t feasible to show the complete conjugation of haber for each tense in Spanish as there are so many but the example below highlights how haber is used, using the past participle of the verb andar, meaning to walk, in the first person singular for each of the perfect tenses:

Indicative Tenses

Present Perfect – he andado – I have walked

Pluperfect – había andado – I had walked

Past Perfect – hube andado – I walked

Future Perfect – habré andado – I will have walked

Conditional Perfect – habría andado – I would have walked

Subjunctive

Present Perfect – haya andado – I have walked

Pluperfect – hubiera or hubiese andado – I had walked

Future Perfect – hubiera andado – I will have walked

So there you have it, haber, is the most used verb in Spanish and as such rightfully earns the honor of being the most important Spanish verb. Obviously, the use of a full conjugation sheet for the verb haber would make the use of this auxiliary verb a great deal easier to understand and you can download or print off such a sheet here.

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Learning to Speak Spanish is On the Increase, Thanks to Shakira!

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Are Spanish speaking celebrities such as Shakira the real reason why learning to speak Spanish is becoming more popular or is it just a case of students having greater choice? This article explores the suggestion that popular culture can affect a student’s educational decisions and also offers alternative reasons as to why this change is happening.

The United Kingdom has recently seen an increase in the number of students moving away from the more traditional languages of French and German and instead they are opting to learn Spanish. The reason for this shift is the popularity of the ‘Colombian Songbird’ Shakira, as she is often regarded to on the internet. Well, that is what we are expected to believe if we were to take everything that is written in the newspapers as gospel!

Personally, I find it difficult to believe that a pop star can have so much influence over an entire country’s student body, especially when it is regarding the choice of which language to learn. If that were to be the case we would have seen an increase in Spanish students a long time ago in tune with the massive popularity that other Spanish speaking singers and celebrities enjoyed at one time or another; Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Penelope Cruz, Julio Iglesias (yes, remember him) Ricky Martin and more recently the extremely popular Enrique Iglesias, son of the aforementioned Spanish swooner, and I’m sure there are many, many more.

The fact is, although Shakira is extremely good at what she does and is very popular with men and women and not always for the same reasons, I think labeling her as the catalyst for the recent changes to language education in the UK is a little extreme. However, that isn’t to say that popular culture cannot change and shape a society, and influence choice…remember the Beatles?

However, learning the Spanish language has been on the increase for many years now, irrespective of popular culture, and for a lot of people it is unquestionably the first language of choice to learn, but why?

In the US it is easy to assume why this would be the case as not only does the US share a border with Mexico, which just happens to have the largest population of Spanish speakers in the world, but according to the 2000 census, Spanish is already spoken by 12% of the US population, which means the US has the fifth largest population of Spanish speakers in the world. This is in complete contrast to the UK which is quite insular where learning languages are concerned and this is highlighted in recent figures that reveal drastic reductions in the number of students taking languages at secondary, higher education, and university levels.

However, although the overall picture is bleak for language study within the education system in the UK there is indeed room for some optimism when considering the increased number of students opting for Spanish. Rather than popular culture, there are a number of more likely reasons why this switch to Spanish is probably happening and they are:

• A greater number of teachers available that can now teach Spanish
• Greater freedom of choice for the student doubled with government policy change in 2004 that made languages non compulsory to 14 year olds and over.
• Stronger bonds with Spain due mainly to the fact that a large percentage of British people holiday each year in Spain, which is also home to over 1 million expats
• Spanish culture is seen as being much more appealing and far more accessible than other European cultures.

Adult language education, on the other hand, is one area that is increasing year on year, and it is Spanish once again that is increasing in popularity, especially in the 40 – 60 age group that one can only surmise are preparing for retirement in sunnier climates.

Online Spanish courses are the preferred way of learning Spanish for the vast majority of these mature students as they are a more cost effective and flexible means of learning Spanish, not to mention quicker, when compared to the traditional evening class.

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