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

I know I would and I’ll tell you why.

I’m pretty sure you would agree with me when I say that learning Spanish verb conjugation is both difficult and extremely boring but, never-the-less it is something that every student of Spanish has to overcome, especially if they want to speak Spanish fluently.

Read more about Spanish Online Verb Conjugator…

The difficulties of learning Spanish are appreciated by many who have attempted to or, who have succeeded in learning the language and there is no aspect more demanding than that of learning Spanish verb conjugation. Most students will gain a certain level of competence whether it is reaching a level good enough to order a meal at a restaurant or be able to hold down a good conversation but the overriding factor in deciding which level of competence is achieved is the level of expertise attained in verb use. A mastery of Spanish verb conjugation will open the floodgates of Spanish fluency and for those wishing to become fluent, it is a no brainer.

We should all know what verbs are and what they are used for (that is, if we were paying any attention in school!) and that they are a vital part of sentence structure as they indicate an action performed by the subject. Without a verb sentences would make very little sense. In English we have it pretty easy where verbs are concerned, they seldom indicate the doer of an action, a service provided by the subject pronoun (I, he, she, you etc) and because of this they change little other than when an s or es is added onto the end of the verb in the 3^rd person singular (he or she). This is where Spanish is very different as subject pronouns are rarely used, other than to avoid ambiguity, as the verb changes to indicate, not only when an action takes place (tense) but also the doer of the action.

Basic Structure of a Spanish Verb

In English, a verb is easy to recognize because all English verbs are preceded by ‘to’ as shown earlier in this sentence (to recognize), this combination of ‘to’and the verb is called the infinitive. The Spanish language does not use an obvious ‘to’instead is recognized by its ending that can be one of either ar, er or, ir. These endings, although joined to what is called the stem of the verb are often said to be the equivalent of the English ‘to’. These endings are important as they are used to group Spanish verbs into three specific groups called, imaginably, the -ar, -er and -ir verb groups. Each group follows a set of specific rules for conjugation as highlighted here.

Present tense conjugation of hablar: regular -ar verb meaning to speak

• yo hablo – I speak
• tú hablas – you speak
• él, ella habla – he, she, it or speaks
• usted habla – you (polite) speak
• nosotros/as hablamos – we speak
• vosotros/as hablaís – you (all) speak
• ellos, ellas hablan – they speak
• ustedes hablan – you (all) speak (polite)

Present tense conjugation of comer: regular -er verb meaning to eat

• yo como – I eat
• tú comes – you eat
• él, ella come – he, she, it or eats
• usted come – you (polite) eat
• nosotros/as comemos – we eat
• vosotros/as comeís – you (all) eat
• ellos, ellas comen – they eat
• ustedes comen – you (all) eat(polite)

Present tense conjugation of vivir: regular -ir verb meaning to live

• yo vivo – I eat
• tú vives – you eat
• él, ella vive – he, she, it or eats
• usted vive – you (polite) eat
• nosotros/as vivimos – we eat
• vosotros/as vivís – you (all) eat
• ellos, ellas viven – they eat
• ustedes viven – you (all) eat(polite)

There are some things that should be noted about the three verb groups above:

• they all have the same ending for the first person singular, I.
• the er and ir verb groups have very similar endings.
• ambiguity can be avoided when using the third person singular and plural, and the polite version of you by using the subject pronoun to precede the verb.(The subject pronoun is often dropped in European Spanish although it is still used frequently in Latin American Spanish)

Spanish Irregular Verbs

Spanish verbs would be relatively easy to master if only all verbs followed the rules of regular verb conjugation. As you may have guessed, this just is not the case.

There are quite a number of verbs that have irregularities in how they are conjugated and unfortunately many of these verbs are also amongst the most commonly used verbs in Spanish. Ser and estar (both meaning to be), haber and tener (both meaning to have), ir (to go), hacer (to make or, to do), dar (to give), coger (to take), poner (to put), poder (to be able to (can)), querer (to want), ver (to see), decir (to say), and venir (to come) are the core of irregular verbs most often used, but there are a great deal more.

The irregularities in these verbs can vary greatly from being highly irregular to a singular variation and the only way to learn them properly is to study each one individually, and the best way of doing this is to use verb training program specifically designed to improve the speed and the enjoyment level at which conjugations are learnt.

Conclusion:

The importance of understanding and using correct verb conjugation cannot be understated. Using verbs correctly is a fundamental part of successfully making the transition from beginner to fluent Spanish speaker, and although difficult should be approached with positive mental preparation.

Are you having problems remembering the correct conjugations of Spanish verbs? Check out the internet’s newest and best Spanish Verb Conjugator that is designed to help you train and memorize Spanish verbs better than ever before! Click Here for more information.

The Spanish Verb Venir

The Spanish Verb Venir, Past Tense Conjugation

Venir past tense conjugation, specifically the preterite tense, is extremely irregular and as such is a difficult Spanish verb to learn. This post provides the conjugation for both past tenses of the Spanish verb venir, the imperfect and the preterite and a suggestion as to how they could be learnt quickly.

There are many irregular verbs in Spanish, many of which are very important in everyday conversation and communication. One such irregular verb is Venir, meaning to come.

Venir is highly irregular, and nowhere is this more noticeable than when it is used in the preterite tense, which is one of the two past tenses used most often in Spanish, the imperfect tense being the other.

Venir follows the regular conjugation of an -ir verb when in the imperfect past tense as the table below shows, regular endings shown in bold;

Venir – Imperfect Tense

• yo venía I was coming
• tú venías you were coming
• él, ella      venía he, she or it was coming
• usted venía you were coming (polite singular)
• nosotros veníamos we were coming
• vosotros veníais you were (all) coming
• ellos, ellas venían they were coming
• ustedes venían you were (all) coming (polite plural)

However, the conjugation of the preterito, or preterit, is highly irregular and, as such, will require more study time to master fully:

Venir – Preterite Tense

• yo vine I came
• tú viniste you came
• él, ella vino he, she or it came
• usted vino you came (polite singular)
• nosotros vinimos we came
• vosotros vinisteis you (all) came
• ellos, ellas vinieron they came
• ustedes vinieron you (all) came (polite plural)

Venir, as previously mentioned, is a highly irregular verb in all but one of the simple tenses (that would be the imperfect tense as covered above) and as such, it would be a good idea to use a verb conjugation training program to help study it.

Verb conjugation training software programs are highly beneficial when studying verbs like venir and similar difficult verbs by providing targeted exercises on user designated problem areas and, by doing so, it will ensure you master the conjugations of irregular Spanish verbs like venir in the shortest time possible.

It should also be noted that there are also a few other verbs that follow this pattern of venir past tense conjugation and they are commonly referred to as the venir family of verbs and they are as follows:

• Intervenir to intervene or, to take part
• Prevenir to prevent or, to warn
• Sobrevenir to happen suddenly or, to follow
• Avenir to reconcile or, to come to an agreement
• Contravenir to violate, to contravene or, to infringe
• Devenir to become, to happen
• Convenir to agree on or, to be suitable
• Provenir to come from

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Spanish verb conjugation is notoriously hard to master, and is one of the main reasons why people give up ever trying to learn Spanish to a competent level. Don’t be one of them! Mastering Spanish verbs is a lot easier with a Spanish verb conjugator. For more information check out this Verbarrator Review