Look at you. Face aglow. With just a few short study sessions, you’ve learned how to conjugate the vast majority of verbs in the present tense. Your confidence is on the rise.
“This conjugation thing isn’t so hard,” you say. “I’m ready for more! I want to conjugate in the past- and in the future!”
Well, pump the brakes, tiger, because we’re going to have to stay in the present for a bit.
(See what we did there? Like staying in the present moment…but also referring to the present tense. Do you get it? It’s a very, very funny joke…we hope you’re grinning.)
The bad news is that 10% of Spanish verbs are irregular verbs. Irregular verbs don’t follow the conjugation patterns that you just learned–they go their own way. While irregulars make up a minority of all the verbs in the Spanish language, many of the most frequently used verbs are irregular.
The good news is that since these irregular verbs are so frequently used, learning them will rapidly enhance your Spanish speaking and comprehension abilities.
Even better news: VerbMaster has wrangled together the most common irregular verbs for you to practice. Through our mastery-based intelligent tutoring system, you will have these irregular verbs down pat in no time. You’ll find some of them sprinkled throughout this Crash Course, and the rest can be found in the Conjugation Cascade.
We’ll start with two of the most frequent irregular verbs: ser and estar.
Both of these verbs mean to be, but in slightly different ways. Generally speaking, ser is used when referring to permanent attributes, and estar is used to refer to temporary states.
This fact reminds us that learning a language is more than just translating word for word or sentence for sentence. It takes time and lots of contact with the Spanish language to fully understand the subtle differences between these two words. But we’ll equip you with some heuristics to get you started:
We'll dig into each of these uses below.
First, ser can be used to state Jobs (of someone or something), Origins (where people and things are from), and to give Basic characteristics (anything you view as essential to someone or something’s being), so JOB is a nifty mnemonic device to remember that. Here are some examples:
Second, estar can be used to present Status/State of being (how something is in a moment), Emotions, Locations, and Feelings. Check out these examples, and try to remember these basics as SELF:
Again, these are the most basic elements of ser and estar. Could we spend more time on it? Absolutely. The most important thing to do right now is install these conjugations in your brain so you can start to recognize them in context and practice them without struggling with recall.
The only way to master these verbs is through targeted practice. Fortunately for you, VerbMaster’s intelligent tutoring system makes conjugation practice a breeze!
In this session, you’ll practice conjugating ser and estar in the present tense. So what are you waiting for? Get to studying, you’re on your way to becoming a VerbMaster!
Don't just read the lesson, practice conjugating in the app!
Download VerbMaster now for iOS or Android!
