Irregular Spanish Verbs

The Spanish verb Oír, which means ‘to hear’, is an irregular Spanish verb. Although not one of the most difficult of irregular verbs to master it is highly irregular in the much used present tense and also in the subjunctive (often used in Spanish!) as well as having third person irregularities in the preterite and an irregular past participle and present participle or ‘Gerund‘. (Did I forget to mention the imperative too!).

Oír is one of four verbs that follow this distinctive pattern of irregularity and all of them relate to ‘hearing‘:

• Oír - to hear
• Entreoír - to half hear
• Trasoír - to mishear
• Desoír - to ignore or, as I like to translate it as, – to choose not to hear!

Oír and Desoír are the verbs that are more commonly used of the four, but once you have mastered the following patterns of conjugations you will be able to apply it to all four.

Past Participle: oído
Present Participle: oyendo

Present Tense Conjugation:

• yo oigo – I hear
• tú oyes – you hear
• él/ella oye – he/she hears
• nosotros/as oímos – we hear
• vosotros/as oís – you hear (plural)
• ellos/ellas oyen – they hear

Please note that the vosotros form of the present tense is not irregular.

Preterite Tense Conjugation

• yo oí – I heard
• tú oíste – you heard
• él/ella oyó – he/she heard
• nosotros/as oímos – we heard
• vosotros/as oísteis – you heard (plural)
• ellos/ellas oyeron – they heard

Only the él/ella and ellos/ellas third person conjugations are irregular in the preterite.

The Subjunctive Mood

• Present Tense

• yo oiga – I hear
• tú oigas – you hear
• él/ella oiga – he/she hears
• nosotros/as oigamos – we hear
• vosotros/as oigáis – you hear (plural)
• ellos/ellas oigan – they hear

• Imperfect Tense

• yo oyera or oyese – I heard
• tú oyeras or oyeses – you heard
• él/ella oyera or oyese – he/she heard
• nosotros/as oyéramos or oyésemos – we heard
• vosotros/as oyerais or oyeseis – you heard (plural)
• ellos/ellas oyeran or oyesen - they heard

• Future Tense

• yo oyere – I will hear
• tú oyeres – you will hear
• él/ella oyere – he/she will hear
• nosotros/as oyéremos – we will hear
• vosotros/as oyereis – you will hear (plural)
• ellos/ellas oyeren – they will hear

The Imperative Mood

The imperative is slightly strange as it is literally translated as ‘Hey!’ rather than ‘Hear!’ or ‘Listen!’

For example:
When someone shouts at you,
¡Oye, ven aqui! – Hey you, come here!

The imperative is often used in places such as restaurants to get the attention of the waiter or waitress:
Oiga señor – ¿nos puede traer el menú? – Hey Sir – can you bring us a menu?

• tú oye – Hey! (you)
• él/ella oiga – Hey!
• nosotros/as oigamos – Hey!
• vosotros/as oíd – Hey! (you plural)
• ellos/ellas oigan – Hey!

That concludes this post on the Spanish verb Oír but if learning verb conjugation is proving difficult for you why not check out my review of the Verbarrator verb training program, it has helped me immensely and is by far the best training tool I’ve ever used.

Or why not check out my previous post which covers the Best Learning Spanish Software currently available.

When deciding upon the best learning Spanish software to purchase it is always best to read as many reviews as possible in order to make an informed decision. Unfortunately though, many people don’t go down this route and will often make a spontaneous decision to learn Spanish and will buy the first Spanish course they see sitting on the shelf of their local store due to their enthusiasm and eagerness to get started.

In a perfect world, purchasing any Spanish course in itself would not pose an issue as every Spanish course would teach the exact same material and each course would therefore help the student to achieve their goal of speaking Spanish.

The truth is that each student is different…some are much better at learning languages than others, some are better at learning a language from a grammatical viewpoint as you would learn it at school for example, whereas others have much better results by concentrating on conversational skills.

It is for this reason that many Spanish courses are now available, each one slightly differing in teaching techniques and methods offering the best possible fit for individual students.

The one area of Spanish study that has seen a massive surge in popularity in the last ten years is the use of software for studying instead of the more traditional text books and cassettes.

Because more and more people have become connected online the flexibility that it provided for studying a language became much more apparent and as a result there has been a consistent increase in available courses.

Many of the earlier online courses offered little in the way of improving upon traditional methods other than offering the same material in a new format, but after a while specific techniques were improved upon that improved the speed at which Spanish could be learnt whilst also making learning much more enjoyable as well as improving the practical application.

Whilst some of these software courses are quite expensive, there are a few others available that are as good, if not better, which are much more reasonably priced.

Personally, I always like to use prolonged popularity rather than short term popularity as a benchmark before considering making a purchase and it for this reason that I would recommend checking out the reviews of the following popular courses before making any decision on which is the best course for you:

1.Rocket Spanish Language Course
2.Visual Link

There is one other software program that is worthy of mentioning as it has helped me, and many others, learn Spanish quickly and effectively and is a ‘must have’ if you are serious about speaking Spanish well and that program is called Verbarrator Spanish verb conjugation trainer, just click on the link to read the review.

By the way, if you are located in California, why not check out this list of Spanish classes in Los Angeles

If you are looking for Spanish Classes in Los Angeles then the list below will be of great assistance…however, before checking any of them out have you considered the benefits of a self study course?

There are two reasons why people fail in their attempt to learn Spanish, the first is cost and the second, which is far and away the main reason, is convenience.

1.Cost – Although learning Spanish has never been more accessible than it is today, especially since the arrival of the internet, the cost of learning Spanish using traditional classroom methods is still quite high in comparison to extremely affordable modern interactive home self study courses plus, if you decide Spanish isn’t for you it can be very difficult to get any money refunded from your classroom course whereas it is relatively easy to get a full refund from the supplier of a self study course.

2. Convenience – Many of us lead busy lives, even those that are retired always seem to have little time to spare, it’s an accepted part of modern day living. This is why it is important to have a Spanish course that works with you, flexible when required to be, and that can be visited whenever you have time…unfortunately, a classroom course cannot offer this flexibilty.

This lack of flexibility leads to missed lessons, miss one lesson and you will probably be ok, miss any more and you will start to get further and further behind the rest of the class, which then makes you start to think that you are wasting your time resulting in you stopping altogether. Wasted time…wasted money!

A modern interactive course provides the flexibility you need to succeed in your ambition to learn Spanish and is an affordable and convenient alternative to rigid and expensive classroom courses. Before you start visiting the sites or contacting the schools listed below give my honest review of Rocket Spanish Language course a read, it’s the most successful self study Spanish course online!

Spanish Classes in Los Angeles

• Language Door
• Savoir Faire California
• Learn Language
• My Spanish Eye
• Gift of Language
• LA Spanish
• Strommen Tutoring
• Beverly Hills Lingual Institute

These are just a few Spanish classes in Los Angeles, if you know of any other good classes please tell me about them by using the comment box below and I will add them to this list once I’ve checked them out…thanks.

In the meantime enjoy the rest of my blog/site and check out my previous post on the Ser Present Tense

Ser, meaning ‘to be‘, is the first irregular verb that many students encounter and is also one of the most irregular spanish verbs, having irregularities in almost every tense, except the future and the conditional tenses.

However, it is with the present tense of ser that all students will begin and this tense is displayed below:

Singular:

• Yo soy – I am
• tú eres – you are (familiar)
• él es – he is
• ella es – she is
• usted es – you are (polite)

Plural:

• nosotros/as somos – we are
• vosotros/as sois – you are (familiar)
• ellos son – they are
• ustedes son – you are (polite)

It does take a little time to memorize the unique conjugation patterns of the irregular verb ser and also, when it should be used. It is common for new students to be confused between ser and the equally irregular estar as they both mean ‘to be‘!

Should you require further information about both verbs and require a FREE printable verb conjugation sheet of each of them you should visit Ser and Estar.

If you are struggling with memorizing Spanish verb conjugations, and let’s face it, who doesn’t, you may also like to know how you can master them much more quickly and much more easily! If so, then you should check out my  Verbarrator Review, great program and also…very successful!

Now that we have covered ser present tense, why not check out ‘How to Conjugate the Spanish Verb Ser Imperfect Tense‘!

Hasta Luego!

Ser is one of those verbs in Spanish that seems to be irregular no matter which tense it is used in and the imperfect ser is no different.

The imperfect tense in Spanish is one that is relatively easy to master as there are very few irregular verbs that cause problems, in fact there are only three irregular verbs in the Spanish ‘imperfecto‘ of which ser is one, the others being ir ‘to go‘ and ver ‘to see‘.

Before covering the imperfect conjugation of ser here is a brief explanation as to when the imperfect tense is used:

The imperfect is used to describe past actions that have not been completed. When the imperfect is used it implies that the past action being referred to didn’t have a definite beginning or a definite end end.

The Imperfect Tense of the verb ser ‘to be’ is formed thus:

• yo era – I was being
• tú eras - you were being
• él/ella era – he or she was being
• nosotros éramos – we were being
• vosotros erais – you were being
• ellos/ellas eran – they were being

If you are finding learning the various irregular conjugations of ser and other Spanish verbs difficult you should consider the use of a verb training software program. You can read my verbarrator review here, the verbarrator is the most recently released program designed to help students learn Spanish verb conjugation and is an excellent aid to studying, it achieves fast results and eliminates the tedium often encountered when learning verb conjugation so… check it out!

If you would like to learn more about the differences between the spanish verbs ser and estar then check out my post ‘What is the Difference Between Ser and Estar in Spanish?‘