Conjugation
It is known as conjugation is the action and effect of conjugating, either enunciating the different forms of a verb, or combining several things with each other. Conjugation examples
In the area of grammar , the term conjugation refers to the ordered series of all verb forms as a result of adding to the verb lexeme, the morphemes of person, number, time and mode.
Based on the above, a person refers to who performs or undergoes the action expressed by the verb, it can be: first person (me), second person (you), third person (he, she, they and they). On the other hand, the number can be singular or plural; time serves to place the action of the verb in any of the moments of the temporal passing: past, present and future.
The auxiliary verb for the conjugation of all other verbs in their compound tenses is the verb “to have”, irregularly, as is the case with the verbs go, be, be, hear, see, among others.
Also, it is important to emphasize that the forms of the verb vary according to the person, such as: I walk, you walk, he walks, we walk, among others. With respect to this point, in Argentina the use of the pronoun “you” has very little use, and is replaced by “vos”.
For its part, the English language is much simpler to conjugate verbs since it presents two simple tenses: present (it is formed by eliminating “To” to the infinitive), and past (in the regular verbs “ed” is added to the present). It also varies in the third person. Conjugation examples
All conjugated verbs keep a reference in time:
- Past . Actions that already happened. For example: we arrived, played, sang.
- Present . Actions that are happening at the time of the enunciation. For example: we know, you have, enter.
- Future . Actions that will happen soon. For example: I can, you will eat, they will come.
In turn, the conjugations will be made in relation to the people who execute the action:
- First person. Who speaks is who executes the action. It can be singular (me), or plural (us). For example: I know, we know.
- Second person . Who executes the action is the interlocutor. It can be singular (you) or plural (you / you). For example: you know, you know.
- Third person . Whoever executes the action is a third party outside that enunciative act. It can be singular (he / she) or plural (they). For example: know, know. Conjugation examples
Example of Verb Conjugation
All conjugated verbs denote or express person and number. They also agree on these two characteristics with the subject of the sentence. Let’s look at an example of this:
A truck loaded with lambs crashed into a tree.
Verb: crashed, Person: third, Number: singular
Remember that regular verbs are conjugated without varying the root, adding the corresponding terminations for each time and mode, to the conjugation to which they belong.
Among the different regular verbs of equal termination, such as ar, er, ir, the conjugation does not change. The disengagements of each of the conjugations can be used for any regular verb.
Example regular verb
Infinitive: walking
Present: path
Past: I walked
Future: I will walk
Example irregular verb
Infinitive: to be
Present: I am
Past: I was
Future: I will be
How to conjugate verbs in English – explanation
Verbs in English can be conjugated in the active or passive voice depending on the function of the subject in the sentence, just as it happens in Spanish. Take, for example, the sentence: “Sara eats the orange” (Sara eats the orange). In this case, when we talk about the active voice, we focus on the subject who performs the action, that is, Sara. Conjugation examples
However, when we refer to the passive voice, we find a sentence in which the subject does not carry out the action, but is the one who receives it. “The orange is being eaten by Sara” (The orange is being eaten by Sara). In this case the subject is the orange and, as we have said, he receives the action.
This is important because in each conjugation in English (whether you want to conjugate verb tenses in the present, past or future) there is an active voice and a passive voice that we will see next. Conjugation examples
Irregular verbs and regular verbs in English
To conjugate each verb well, it is not enough to know the verb tenses in English, because you have to learn to differentiate irregular verbs from regular verbs in English.
Although we will show it to you in more detail below, you should first know that regular verbs are those that can build their form in the past by adding only “-d” (when the verb in question ends in an E vowel) or “-ed” (when the verb ends in any other letter) at the end. Let’s look at an example:
- Verb “to ask” in the present tense : I ask a question every day.
- Verb “to ask” in the past tense : I asked a question every day.
- Verb “to ask” in present perfect : I have asked a question every day.
On the other hand, irregular verbs in English are those that cannot form their past tense by adding only “-e” or “-ed” at the end. These have different endings depending on the verb, so many prefer to learn them by heart. We can find:
- Verbs with the same past simple and participle form: buy, bought, bought
- Verbs with identical forms both in the infinitive and in the simple past and in the past participle: cut, cut, cut (cut, cut, cut)
- Verbs with totally different forms: forget, forgot, forgotten (forget, forgot, forgotten)
English tenses: present
We start by talking about the verb tenses of the present in English:
- Present simple : The present simple is formed by using the verb in the infinitive for the subjects “I”, “you”, “we” and “they”. For the third persons, “he”, “she” and “it”, we must add an “s” to the end of the verb. Example : I drink coffee every morning (I drink coffee every morning), he drinks coffee every morning. (he drinks coffee every morning). Conjugation examples
- Present continuous : the present continuous in English requires the use of the auxiliary “to be” accompanying the verb in the gerund (verb in the present with the ending “ing”). Example : I am working at the moment (I am working right now).
- Present perfect : This verb tense is used in sentences in which a past event has significance even now. To form the present perfect in English, the auxiliary verb “to have” (in the first persons I, we, you, they) and “has” (in the third persons he, she, it) are used. Example : I have danced (I have danced) or He has gone to the river (he has gone to the river).
- Present perfect continuous : Like the present perfect, this conjugation uses the auxiliary verb “to have/has” in addition to “been” (the participle of the verb “to be”) before the gerund verb (ending in “ing”). This conjugation is used to establish continuity in a past action that still lasts. Example : They have been talking for hours.
English verb tenses: past
We continue with the conjugations in English, but this time for the past tenses:
- Simple Past – The simple past is the most common way of conjugating past tense verbs in English. For this conjugation, regular verbs are used (they are written in the infinitive, with the ending “-e” or “-ed”) and irregular verbs (their writing changes when conjugated). Example : I cried watching the film (I cried watching the movie) and He thought of his dog (he thought of his dog).
- Past continuous : The past continuous in English is used in actions that were happening at a specific time in the past. Like the present continuous, this conjugation is formed with the auxiliary verb “to be” and the verb as a gerund. Example : I was watching TV (I was watching television).
- Past perfect – The past perfect in English is used for actions that occurred before another action in the past. To do this, take the auxiliary verb “to have” and the participle of the verb you want to conjugate. Example : I had seen him before (I had seen him before).
- Past perfect continuous : the past perfect continuous indicates actions occurring at the moment but during the past prior to another action that occurred. We use the auxiliary “had been” and the verb as a gerund. Example: We had been sleeping for hours when they arrived.
English verb tenses: future
Finally, we turn to the future tenses to conjugate several English verbs:
- Future simple : to structure sentences in the future simple in English, two auxiliaries can be used: “will” (“will not” for negations) and “going to” (“ir a” translated into Spanish). The auxiliary “going to” is used for planned actions, with a high probability of happening, while “wil” is usually used to make voluntary promises or predictions. In negative sentences, the “not” comes after the verb “to be”. Example : I will call you tomorrow (I will call you tomorrow) or He’s not going to come.
- Future continuous : the future continuous in English is formed using the auxiliary “will be” or “be going to” before the verb in the gerund (infinitive verb + ing). Example : I will be sleeping (I will be sleeping).
- Future perfect : in this verb tense, both auxiliaries (will and going to) are accompanied by “have”, since the future perfect is used to express a future action, which will happen before a certain event. Example : she she will have eaten before you come back from work. (She will have eaten before you get back from work).
- Future perfect continuous : The future perfect continuous is used to express actions that have continuity over another future action or event. As in the future perfect, both the auxiliary “will” and “going to” can be used without altering the meaning of the sentence. Both auxiliaries are conjugated with the auxiliary “have been” in this verb tense. Example : He will have been working for three months when he moves to Mexico next year. Conjugation examples
English tenses: conditionals
When we talk about conjugating verb tenses with the conditional form in English, we are mainly referring to three possible forms of conditionals:
- Conditional : we use it to refer to something that a subject would do if the opportunity arose, although it is by no means a safe phrase. We use the “would” before the verb that we want to conjugate in question. Example : I would travel to Paris. (I would travel to Paris).
- Conditional continuous : once again we will use the “would”, but this time it will be followed by the verb “to be + gerund of the verb that we want to conjugate, since we use it to refer to something that would happen at a certain time if the occasion Example : I would be traveling to Paris (I would be traveling to Paris).
- Conditional perfect : to conjugate verbs with the conditional perfect we use “would” followed by have + participle of the verb to be conjugated. We refer to something that would have happened in the past if certain circumstances had occurred. Example : (I would have traveled to Paris) I would have traveled to Paris. Conjugation examples
If you want to see a table with the conjugation of verbs in English, do not miss the following image; We offer you as an example the verb “to be” (to be) conjugated in all present, past, future and conditional tenses.
Conjugation of regular verbs in English with meanings
Note that the first column is the infinitive, the second the past and participle, and the third the meaning.
- Avoid – Avoided – Avoid
- Attack – Attacked – Attack
- Apologize – Apologized – Apologize
- Believe – Believed – Believe
- Balance – Balanced – Balance
- Complete – Completed – Complete
- Cook – Cooked – Cook
- Call – Called – Call
- Dance – Danced – Dance
- Die – Died – Die
- Enjoy – Enjoyed – Enjoy
- Follow – Followed – Follow
- Finish – Finished – Finish
- Guess – Guessed – Guess
- Help – Helped – Help
- Imagine – Imagined – Imagine
- Judge – Judged – Judge
- Kiss – Kissed – Kiss
- Like – Liked – Like
- Notice – Notice – Notify
- Observe – Observed – Observe
- Open – Opened – Open
- Play – Played – Play
- Promise – Promised – Promise
- Remember – Remembered – Remember
- Search – Searched – Search
- Save – Saved – Save
- Study – Studied – Study
- Talk – Talked – Converse
- Touch – Touched – Touch
- Use – Used – Use
- Visit – Visited – Visit
- Wait – Waited – Wait
- Walk – Walked – Walk
- Worry – Worried – Worry
Conjugation of verbs in English with meanings
In many irregular verbs, the past and past participle conjugation is written differently. Let’s see some of the most used irregular verbs taking into account that the first word belongs to the infinitive, the second to the past, the third to the participle and the last to the meaning: Conjugation examples
- Awake – Awoke – Awoken – Wake up
- Be – Was – Been – Ser,
- Begin – Began – Begun – Start
- Come – Come – Come – Come
- Drink – Drank – Drunk –
- Eat – Ate – Eaten – Comer
- Fly – Flew – Flown – Volar
- Give – Gave – Given – Dar
- Go – Went – Gone – Go
- Have – Had – Had – Have
- Keep – Kept – Kept – Keep
- Leave – Left – Left – Leave
- Lie – Lay – Lain – Lie down
- Mean – Meant – Meant – To signify
- Pay – Paid – Paid – Pay
- Quit – Quit – Quit – Abandon
- Read – Read – Read – Read
- Say – Said – Said – Say
- See – Saw – Seen – See
- Speak – Spoke – Spoken – Talk
- Speed - Sped – Sped – Accelerate
- Take – Took – Taken – Take
- Understand – Understood – Understood – Understand
- Wake – Woke – Woken – Wake up
- Write – Write – Write
