The Spanish present indicative tense is used when describing events that are currently taking place.
| Yo hablo. | I speak. I do speak. I am speaking. |
| Yo hablo enfrente de la clase los viernes. | I speak in front of the class on Fridays. |
Spanish infinitives are conjugated by dropping the ending (-ar, -er, -ir) and adding a new ending, thus creating a new word.
The ending identifies:
1) the tense - when the action of the verb is taking place; and
2) the person - who is performing the action of the verb.
The following charts show the verb 鈥渆ndings鈥� for all regular verbs in the Present Indicative Tense.
Remember: these verb charts are only a tool to use while one is learning the language. In other words, one must eventually forget the verb chart and it must become second nature.
| Personal Pronoun | Ending | Example (hablar) |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | -o | hablo |
| Tu | -as | hablas |
| El/Ella | -a | habla |
| Nosotros | -amos | hablamos |
| Vosotros | -谩颈蝉 | 丑补产濒谩颈蝉 |
| Ellos/Ellas | -an | hablan |
| Personal Pronoun | Ending | Example (compartir) |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | -o | comparto |
| Tu | -es | compartes |
| El/Ella | -e | comparte |
| Nosotros | -imos | compartamos |
| Vosotros | -铆蝉 | 肠辞尘辫补谤迟铆蝉 |
| Ellos/Ellas | -en | comparten |
| Personal Pronoun | Ending | Example (comer) |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | -o | como |
| Tu | -es | comes |
| El/Ella | -e | come |
| Nosotros | -emos | comemos |
| Vosotros | -茅颈蝉 | 肠辞尘茅颈蝉 |
| Ellos/Ellas | -en | comen |
The Present Indicative Tense is used to talk about what is occurring in the 鈥済eneral鈥� present time frame. It is usually not used when talking about something that is actually in progress at the time you are talking about it; for that we use the Present Progressive construction.