STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

dude, i speak spanish and i know how to spell it pretty good but Im lost when it comes to those things we have to use! i know when to use ~ for the most part, but i have now clue when to use '

sorry! im sure someone in here will be able to help you.

hablo espanol!  Indiekitten is right, you have to memorize them to know them, but you can recognize them in their conjugated form because they sound way different than the normal verbs.  Often you can recognize an irregular verb because if you try to conjugate it the normal way, it won't make sense.  For example, the verb "to go" - is "ir".  Try conjugating that the normal way, and it comes out "???"  I mean, you just can't do it.  Same with other common verbs, some are:

tener, ver, hacer, poner, decir, venir, oir, salir, traer...there are about 20.

basically, if the irregular verb ends in "-ner" or "-nir" or "-nor", you change the ending to "-ngo" for the "yo" conjugations. you keep that n sound in there and just drop the infinitive...ex:

tengo, pongo, vengo

but for the others (tu, ellos/ellas, el/ella, and nosotros) it's different because many of these verbs are also stem-changing verbs, meaning the part in the middle changes...like tener in the "tu" form is "tienes"

if it has a "cer" or "cir" ending, you drop the c sound entirely, along with the infinitive:

hago, digo - notice again that "decir" is a stem changing irregular verb.  It's "dices" in the "tu" form, whereas "hacer" is "haces" in the "tu" form - it's not a stem-changer, it's just irregular.  I know it sounds really confusing but the best thing to do is practice and memorize.  Most irregular verbs are very common so as you use them and hear them their verb forms will become more familiar to you.  Put them in a chart with the subject pronouns and just say them out loud in order from "yo" "tu" "el/ella/usted" "nosotros" and "ellos/ellas/ustedes" 

The stem changers are actually trickier because there are a lot of them.  They come in three groups and are conjugated like this:

if the stem vowel is o it goes to ue

if it is e it goes to ie

sometimes if it is e it goes to i

and only in the "tu" and "ustedes/ellos/ellas" forms UNLESS it is an "e turning into ie" category in which case all the forms change except for "nosotros" which stays the same.

Uff, this is long and confusing, but I feel your pain...I'm taking Thai right now and it's so hard!  Plus it took 10+ years of Spanish for me to get all the grammar down, but once you learn it, you won't forget it! 

Try this site for more clarity and better examples: http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/stemie.htm

DC Shopper wrote:

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Put them in a chart with the subject pronouns and just say them out loud in order from "yo" "tu" "el/ella/usted" "nosotros" and "ellos/ellas/ustedes" 

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you are one smart cookie, DCS!

I am by no means fluent, but I did take three years' worth of Spanish. The chart is a really good idea. My Spanish teacher used to make us create a chart like this every time we learned a new word (except there are lines in it, like a tic-tac-toe chart), i.e.:

yo                    nos.                                     voy                vamos     

tu                    vos.                    =               vas                 vais

el/ella/ud.         ellos/ellas/uds.                        va                  van

It was a very helpful graphic organizer.