Chapter 2A September 16, 2014

Objectives

Subject Pronouns Actividades 10-12

Present tense conjugation of –ar verbs Actividades 13 y 14

Conjugation chart

Homework: Workbook pages , fill out conjugation chart

Subject Pronouns

yo – I nosotros – we (masc., masc./fem.)

nosotras – we (fem.)

tú – you (familiar) vosotros – you all (masc., masc./fem.)

vosotras – you all (feminine)

él – heella – she

Ud. – you (formal)

ellos – they (masc., masc./fem.)ellas – they (feminine)Uds. – they (formal)

The subject of a sentence tells who is doing the action. Usually, you use people’s names as the subject. You also use subject pronouns (I, you, he she, we, they) to replace people’s names.

Subject pronouns (cont.)

Tú is used with family, friends, people your age or younger, and anyone you call by their first name.

Usted is used with adults you address with a title.

In everywhere except Spain, ustedes is used when speaking to two or more people, regardless of age.

In Spain, vosotros (as), is used when speaking to two or more people you call tú individually. Uds. is used when talking to two or more people you call usted individually.

Subject Pronouns

You can also combine a subject pronoun and a name to form a subject.

Por ejemplo:

Alejandro y yo = nosotros Pepe y tú = Uds.

Carlos y ella = ellos Lola y ella = ellas

Present tense of –ar verbs

You already know that Spanish infinitives end in either –ar, -er, or –ir. The largest group of verbs end in –ar.

In order to use verbs in other forms than the infinitive (to do + verb), you must conjugate the verbs. To do this for –ar verbs, you must drop the –ar ending and add new endings.

Conjugating –ar verbs

These are the endings for –ar verbs in the present tense.

-o -amos

-as -áis

-a -an

To create the present tense of MOST –ar verbs, you must first drop the –ar ending, leaving you with the stem.

habl-

Then, you add the appropriate ending to the verb.

yo hablo nosotros/as hablamos

tú hablas vosotros/as habláis

él, ella, Ud. habla ellos, ellas, Uds. hablan

Conjugating –ar verbs Present tense forms of verbs can be translated two

ways:

Hablo español.

I speak Spanish. / I am speaking Spanish.

Verb endings always indicate who is doing the action. In this case, they tell you who is speaking. Because of this, you can often use the verb without a subject.

¿Hablas inglés? Hablo español.

Subject pronouns are often used for emphasis or clarification.

Ella habla inglés, pero él habla español.