The Irregular Spanish Subjunctive Verbs

If you would rather die than have to learn more irregular verbs,  today is your lucky day. The first letter of the  irregular verbs of the Spanish Subjunctive happens to spell  DIES.

You will have to add an extra S to make this mnemonic work.

D ar
I r
E star
S aber
S er


Haber is also irregular in the Subjunctive but I couldn't make it fit into the death theme that I became so attached to. Besides,  you should probably know by know that haber is always doing something crazy. Just assume it is irregular unless notified otherwise.

How To Conjugate The Spanish Subjuctive

To conjugate the Spanish Subjunctive, you only need to follow 3 simple steps:

1.Put the verb in the Yo form of the present tense.
2.Chop of the O at the end.
3.Add the opposite ending ( If it is an AR verb, use the same  ER ending that is used  for the Spanish present tense. If it is an ER or IR verb, use the same ending that you would if it was an AR verb in the present tense.)

This is what it looks like in action:

Hablar
1. Hablo.... (YO)
2. Habl.... ( NO O)
3. Hable ...( Opposite)

This all becomes unforgettable because we are constantly reminded that the Spanish Subjunctive is less verb and more MOOD. Mood has enough Os to represent the 3 steps to forming this freaky verb.

The Spanish Subjunctive

 The Spanish Subjunctive is  more of a mood than a verb. If that sounds mind-expanding, good, because the word that can help you remember when to use the Subjunctive is related to mind expansion.

The word is WEAD [pronounced weed].

 

 

Use the Spanish Subjunctive to express:

 

Wishes

Emotions

Attitudes

Desires

 

Wish: I hope that there is music.

Emotion: I am happy that the universe is infinite.

Attitude: It is good that you live in peace.

Desire: I want you to have time.

 

 

 

 

The Spanish Irregular Past Imperfect Verbs

There are only 3 irregular verbs in the Spanish Imperfect.

 Those 3 verbs are Ir, Ver and Ser. If that is not easy enough for you, the start of each verb spells IVS. As in those fluid-filled bags that terminate in a needle into your rubbery arm vein. You will never get a transfusion again without thinking of  this grammar rule.

Something very irregular and imperfect is going on.Hopefully it is in your past.

Short Cut To Learning The Irregular Preterite Spanish Verbs

Remembering all of the irregular Spanish verbs in the preterite tense is not so bad if  you break it up into four steps.

Step One: the verbs that are weird all the way through ( Ser, Ir, Hacer, and Dar)

Step Two: the verbs that are only weird in the yo form ( verbs ending in car,gar or zar) and verbs that end in  a vowel after you chop of the verb ending as in Leer and Traer. Most of these guys are weird in the usted(es) form except for Traer which is weird through and through.

Step Three: The IR verbs that get weird only in the usted(es) form (Depedir, Vestire, Pedir etc.)

Step Four: The 7 stem-changers

For step one, picture the twins (Ser/Ir), the flip-flopper (Dar), and Hacer going on a vaction....

Ser/Ir:fui,fuiste,fue,fuimos,fueron
Dar: di,diste,dio,dimos,dieron
Hacer: hice,hiciste,hizo,hicimos,hiceron

For step two, They catch a ride in a car with  a zcar, who is  saying, "Garrr." and asking for someone to bring him something to read.  

Buscar: busqué (yo form)
Pagar: pagué (yo form)
Almorzar: almorcé ( yo form)
Leer: leyó/leyeron (usted and ustedes form)
Traer: traje, trajiste, trajo, trajimos, trajeron

Step Three, they all end up in a hotel called IR because this only involves verbs with IR endings. All the verbs in this category can be done in a hotel.

With this group, either an e becomes an i or u changes to an o.
Pedir: pidió/pidieron (usted and ustedes form)
Dormir: durmió/durmieron (usted and ustedes form)

Finally, and for no reason, they climb seven stairs to find the stem-changing verbs and one of the weirdos says, "Seven poo poos is cutie." Which sounds kind of random until you realize that it is a mnemonic  for saber, venir, poder, poner, estar, querer and tener...the seven stem-changing Spanish preterit verbs.

Stem-changes for this group of freaks
Saber: sup
Venir: vin
Poder: pud
Poner: pus
Estar: estuv
Querer: quis
Tener: tuv

When To Use The Spanish Past Imperfect

Use  the Spanish Past Imperfect when you need a verb to talk about ongoing continuous action.

People who like to front load their stories use this type of verb. You know the kind of person who when asked, "how was your weekend?" goes into all the background information to set the scene. ("Oh my weekend, glad you asked... the sun was shining. The wind was blowing. the air was floating.")
At times this background information is relevant,  but to my ears all it sound like is BLA BLA BLA. This is helpful because bla bla bla kind of looks like the ending to the Spanish Past Imperfect endings for the AR verbs.

AR endings aba abas aba abamos aban
IR and ER endings ía ías ía íamos ían

The endings of the Ir and Er verbs sound more like (EEEEE Ya) which is the noise I am tempted to make while a run away from these big mouths.

When To Use The Spanish Preterite

Use the Spanish preterit tense when the verb is ...

1. moving the action forward                         (Forward)
2. an action limited in time                             (Rate)
3. an act that begins or ends in the past          (Ends)
4. an emotional, physical, or mental change  (Emotional)

To remember the above, I just think of the word FREE because that is what I feel when I think of past (preterit) boyfriends.

Key Word	What It Means	Example English	Example Spanish
Forward	Moves the action forward	He lost his job. He wrecked his car. He yelled at my cat	Él perdió su trabajo. Él destrozó su coche. Él le gritó a mi gato.
Rate	An action limited in time or a rate	He called me 1,000 times.	Me llamó mil veces.
End	An act that ends or begins in the past	I began to see his weaknesses.	Yo comencé a ver sus debilidades.
Emotion	An emotional, physical, or mental change	Upon seeing his behavior, I became annoyed.	Al ver su comportamiento, me enojé.

Click for the best Spanish Preterit vs Imperfect explanation ever !

The Preterite AR Verbs

To conjugate the preterite ( that means past ) AR Spanish verbs you chop off the AR part of the verb and then add the correct ending

here are the endings for the AR verbs:

Yo... é
Tú... aste
Usted... ó

Nosotros... amos
Ustedes....aran

The preterite is the past which makes me think of cemeteries because everyone who is buried there has lives that are in the PAST.

I imagine a grave yard with ghosts making all of these sounds to remind me of the preterite Spanish AR verb endings

Just say this to yourself 100 times, "eee Nasty ooo  amos aron" That should keep it in your head until the day you become a ghost.

 The preterit verb endings for the ER and IR verbs follow a similar pattern:

ER  verbs                                                           Ir verb
yo..í                                                              Yo...í
Tú...iste                                                         Tú...iste
Usted...ió                                                       Usted...ió

Nosotros...imos                                            Nosotros...imos
Ustedes...ieron                                              Ustedes...ieron

Aquello

In the last post we went over this and that ( esto y eso ).

This post is about that over there (aquello)

Think of this (esto ) as being closer to you and That (eso) as a little further away. Aquello is the furthest away because it means that over there.

Aquello is the gender neutral version of the entire options that are used based on number and gender.

It breaks down like this:

Aquello ( gender neutral as in, "¿What is that over there?" or in Spanish "¿Qué es aquello?"
Aquel ( singular masculine)
Aquellos ( plural masculine)
Aquella ( singular feminine)
Aquellas (singular feminine)


To identify the aquello adjectives from the esto and eso ones, look at the double LLs that appear in all but one of the aquellos. I imagine the LLs forming a highway to take me to that over there.

This or That/ Esto or Eso

Esto means This. Eso means That. But there is more...

There are ending changes depending on the gender and number of whatever you are referring to.

Esto can be Esta, Este, Estos or Estas.

Eso can be Esa, Ese, Esos, or Esas.

Esto and Eso are the gender neutral versions of this and that

EXAMPLE

Esto es emocionante ( This is exciting. We do not know if it is male or female...just exciting. so use the gender neutral esto.)

Eso es inteligente ( That is intelligent. Again, use neutral, because we do not know what is intelligent.)

It is easy to get Esto and Eso mixed up so I find it best to think like this:

Esto means this which is closer to me than that. Esto  has a T in it. T stands for Touch. If  this is close to me I can touch it.

Eso means that- which rhymes with splat. And eso and all of it's variations (plural and gender) look like little splats. See for yourself...

Spanish Reflexive Verbs

In Spanish,  a  reflexive verb is a verb that you do to yourself. Reflexive verbs are easy to find because of three reasons...

Reason #1:  They have SE tacked on to the end of the verb (bañarse, ducharse, maquillarse)

Reason #2: A lot of the reflexive verbs are done in the bathroom ( bañarse means to bathe oneself. Ducharse means to shower owneself. Maquillarse means to put makeup on oneself.)

Reason# 3: A lot of the reflexive verbs are done in the bedroom ( dormirse means to go to sleep. leventarse means to get out of bed.)

When you conjugate a reflexive verb, the se part changes to its appropriate pronoun (me, te, se, nos, se)

Even though the se part is at the end of the verb, when you conjugate it, you put the  reflexive part in front of the conjugated verb. (me baño means I wash myself)

To keep reflexive verbs lined up, I think like this:

Reflexive Verb should make you think of an RV. Often times RVs have little trailers. So this is what I picture when I think of Reflexive Verbs

When you conjugate the reflexive verb just imagine stopping the RV,  unloading the trailer and putting  the pronouns in front of the RV. By the way, the driver is saying that he scratches  himself.