Madrigals Magic Key to Spanish (95 page)

Remember that “mos” is the symbol of all first person plurais and “n” is the symbol of all third man form plurals. All verbs end in “mos” in the first person plural, and in “n” in the third man plural.

plural first person = MOS

plural third man form = N

Notice that in order to form the plural of “había” you just add “mos” or “n” to the singular.

PRESENT PROGRESSIVE

Estoy trabajando,	I am working
Está trabajando,	you are working
Estamos trabajando,	we are working
Están trabajando,	they are working

PAST PROGRESSIVE

Estaba trabajando,	I was working
Estaba trabajando,	you were working
Estábamos trabajando,	we were working
Estaban trabajando,	they were working

La América del Sur

PRESENT TENSE

AR verb	ER verb
hablar, to speak	vender, to sell
hablO, I speak	vendO, I sell
hablA, you speak	vendE, you sell
hablAMOS, we speak	vendEMOS, we sell
hablAN, they speak	vendEN, they sell

The endings of the above verbs have been printed in capital letters to remind you that in the present tense, the endings of “ar” verbs are based on the letter “a” and the endings of “er” verbs are based on the letter “e,” except for the first person singular, which ends in “o.” In chart form:

PRESENT TENSE

There are some verbs that are completely regular in their endings but that change in the body (root, stem) of the verb. These verbs are known as “Radical Changing Verbs,” which means root or stem changing verbs.

There are some verbs in which the letter “e” changes to “
ie” in the stem.

EXAMPLE
:

PENSAR,
to think

pIEnso, I think	pensamos, we think
pIEnsa, you think	pIEnsan, they think