Irregular Spanish Verbs

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

Spanish Past Tense

The Spanish past tense throws up a problem for many students and that is whether they should use the imperfect or preterite?

In Spanish, the two simple past tenses that are predominantly used, are called the Imperfect and the Preterite and it is perfectly understandable for students, who are learning about past tenses for the first time, to be unsure as to which of these two tenses to use and when.

It goes without saying that both tenses are used to describe past actions or states but each is used differently and the following rules will hopefully clear up any confusion.

When to Use the Preterite

The preterite tense is used to express an action that was completed at some time in the past, listed here are some specific uses and examples:

• When referring to a series of actions in the past:
  • Me desayuné, limpié la casa y me fui a la estación – I had breakfast, cleaned the house, and went to the station.

• When referring to the beginning or the end of a past event:
  • La fiesta empezó a las diez – The party began at 10:00

• When referring to things that are seen as being complete:
  • Dejó el trabajo hace un año – You left the job a year ago

When to Use the Imperfect
The imperfect tense expresses an action or state  that was ongoing during the past and if it is uncertain whether it has been completed. Specific uses and examples are listed below:

• To explain an action that a person did in the past habitually:
  • Cuando estábamos en el colegio, jugábamos al fútbol todos los jueves. – When we were at school, we used to play football every Thursday

• To refer to an action without making reference to an end or a beginning:
  • Mi mujer tenía dolores de cabeza frecuentes – My wife had frequent headaches

• When referring to actions that were taking place simultaneously in the past:
  • Mi hijo miraba televisión y mi hija cantaba – My son was watching television and my daughter was singing

• When describing physical, emotional or mental states or conditions:
  • Estaba tan feliz que quería llorar – I was so happy that I wanted to cry

• When referring to a past time:
  • Eran las ocho y media de la tarde – It was 8:30 p.m.
  • Era la una de la mañana – It was 1:00 a.m.

• When describing an action or state that happened at some point in the past and that lasted for a certain amount of time and that happened prior to another past action.
  • Hacía todo el día que esperando cuando mi mujer llegó – I had been waiting all day when my when arrived

Hopefully, these guidelines will provide the clarity you need.

Why not check out my previous post about the benefits of an online conjugator Spanish verb trainer or if you would rather read about a spanish verb conjugator that will help you to learn Spanish verb conjugation better and quicker than any other method check out my Verbarrator Review

Online Conjugator Spanish - The Verbarrator

The Spanish online conjugator is, undeniably, one of the most effective learning tools currently available that is capable of helping students learn Spanish quickly, in particular, the conjugation of Spanish verbs, which is so often the stumbling block for many of them.

For years linguists have been trying new methods and techniques that would aid in the learning of Spanish. Everything from image association and various other memorization techniques to subconscious study (listening to Spanish whilst sleeping!).

Some of these techniques were effective, whilst others were…well let’s just say, a little gimmicky! Many of the effective methods are still used today but they only really improved how Spanish was learnt and not the time taken to do so.

Also, the effective learning techniques were better suited for nouns, adjective and verb infinitives and not for learning the conjugation of verbs (I am referring to image association, by the way!).

Why an online conjugator, Spanish verb practice tool so effective?

Spanish verb conjugation is notoriously difficult to master and, because of this, it is one of the most time consuming areas of Spanish study.

The traditional method of learning Spanish verb conjugations has always been to use a verb conjugation book and recite, recite and recite some more until the necessary information had been completely memorized…hence why it took so long to learn conjugation.

However, the online conjugator has helped substantially and although the earliest offerings were basically online verb conjugation books, that did little, if anything at all, to improve the situation, the most recent additions have completely transformed how Spanish verbs are studied, specifically the ‘Verbarrator’.

Learning verb conjugation has always been tedious and time consuming, some have said it is like riding a bicycle with flat tyres up a hill, sure you’ll get there in the end but boy it’s hard work, and it is for this reason that so many people give up on learning Spanish beyond being able to order a coffee.

Now…imagine what it would be like if you actually started enjoying the study of verb conjugation and mastered them much quicker than you could have ever imagined!

This is what the current crop of online conjugators offer and why they are an invaluable Spanish verb practice and training tool for anyone serious about learning Spanish well and quickly.

For more information about the ‘Verbarrator’ verb conjugation software check out my review of it by clicking Verbarrator Review. If that doesn’t tickle your fancy, why not check out my previous post on how to
Conjugate Ser in the preterite tense, it’s concise and very helpful!

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