Making Sentences

Subject Pronouns
Verbs
Present Tense
- Present tense - Regular verbs.
- Present tense - Irregular verbs.
Verb to be (ser and estar)
- Ser
- Estar
- Ser and estar + adjective
- Plural of nouns

Subject Pronouns
Pronouns are the words that very often begin a sentence in English:

“Vosotros” and “vosotras” is the familiar plural form of “tú”, in southamerica we prefer to use “ustedes” instead. “Vos” is commonly used in Argentine for the singular you.
In Spanish the pronouns may not be at the beginning of the sentence, or they are not even at all in the sentence:
“Yo tengo muchos amigos” or “tengo muchos amigos” = I have many friends.

Verbs
The verb is a word that indicates process, action or state. There are three kinds of verbs, regular verbs which have a rule to conjugate, irregular verbs which don't have it and defective verbs which lack a time or person in the conjugation.
Note that the conjugations for usted (you), él (he), and ella (she) use the same form of the verb. The same goes for their plurals (though the singular and the plural use different forms).

Infinitive verb: It is a verb in the simple form, it is not conjugated yet.
Example: jugar, bailar, comer, correr, salir, ir.

Conjugation: You have to distinguish the ending of the infinitive verbs to be able to conjugate the regular verbs and memorize for irregular verbs.

Present Tense

Present tense – regular verbs
The present tense of regular verbs is formed by removing the infinitive ending and adding personal endings to the verb stem. There is a different set of personal endings for each of the three conjugations.

Is it easy?
Let's write some sentences.

Practice
“Yo canto en mi casa” or “canto en mi casa”.
Tú comes arroz.
Vives con mi amiga.

¿Do you want to know more verbs? Visit the miscellaneous section.

Present tense – irregular verbs
The present tense of irregular verbs do not follow the fixed rules for forming the various tenses.
You have to memorize every verb.

Yo tengo un carro.
Tienes un perro.
Soy tu amigo.
Estan con mis mascotas.

Verb to be (ser and estar)
Ser and estar both mean to be. So, how to recognize them?
There are some situations that we have to consider.

- Ser
•  Equative sentences: The verb is used to link two nouns representing the same thing.
Examples:
José es el nuevo profesor de español.
Ella es mi amiga.

•  Telling time, day, date.
Examples:
Son las diez de la mañana.
Hoy es Martes.
Es el 10 de febrero de 2005.

•  Origin: To be from. The verb is followed by the word “de”.
Examples:
John es de Inglaterra.
La papa es de Huancayo.

•  Material: made of. The verb is followed by the word “de”.
Examples:
Las paredes son de barro.
La tela es de algodón.

•  Possession: In this case the possessive nouns are used. The verb is followed by the word “de”.
Examples:
El carro rojo es de Janelle.
La comida es del gato.

•  Location of events.
Example:
La reuniones son en la biblioteca.
La fiesta es en mi casa.

- Estar
•  Location (except events): to express where something takes place.
Example:
Mi casa está en la calle Real.
Los perros están en mi dormitorio.

- Ser and estar + adjective
Ser and estar are used with adjectives but in different situations.
•  Ser is used to describe the normal or expected condition.
Example:
Ellos son felices.
Tus compañeros son muy lentos.

•  Estar is used when something was changed, not expected or abnormal.
Example:
Ellos están felices.
Tus compañeros están muy lentos.

Practice
You can easily know how to use each verb with the following questions:

- Ser

- Ser or estar

- Ser or estar (adjectives)