| This lesson will help you understand the Spanish
regular verbs, present tense, past tense in Spanish, future tense, Spanish
imperfect, present perfect, and the imperative in Spanish, and enables you to use
real examples shown below. If you have any question let us know by clicking on
the “Contact us” button, this lesson is very important since it covers a very
widely used element in Spanish which is the adjective.
In
Spanish there are three categories of verbs:
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-ar
verbs (like hablar, to speak),
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-er
verbs (like comer, to eat),
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-ir
verbs (like vivir, to live),
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In
regular verbs the ending is identical and you can simply follow a specific rule
to conjugate them all, we will take the present indicative as an example of
conjugating regular verbs, since it's the tense used most, for example hablar
(to talk), comer (to eat), and vivir (to live), the present indicative forms
are made by removing the infinitive ending of the verb (-ar, -er
or -ir) and replacing it with an ending that indicates who is performing
the action of the verb:
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Spanish
Verbs
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Stem
+(-o, -as,-a, -amos, -áis, -an ) for
verbs ending in -ar.
Stem
+(-o, -as,-a, -amos, -áis, -an) for
verbs ending in -er.
Stem
+(-o, -es, -e, -imos, -ís, -en) for
verbs ending in -ir.
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The best thing about regular verbs is that
you can apply the above rules (endings) to all regular verbs, it's important to
know the stem of the verb so that you can add the endings to it, like
the stem of hablar is habl, comer: com, vivir: viv. I speak = yo + habl+o = yo
hablo. You can have a look at the table below and see the endings of each verb,
it includes a list of: present participle, past participle, present indicative,
preterit indicative, Imperfect indicative, future indicative, imperative
(Commands).
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Spanish Regular
Verbs
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Verb
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Pr Part
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Pa
Part
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Present
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Preterite
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Reg
(-ar)
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hablando
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hablado
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hablo,as,a,amos,an
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hablé,aste,ó,
amos,aron
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Reg
(-er)
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comiendo
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comido
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como,es,e,emos,en
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comí,iste,ió,
imos,ieron
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Reg
(-ir)
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viviendo
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vivido
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vivo,es,e,imos,en
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viví,iste,ió,
imos,ieron
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Imperfect
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Future
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Imperative
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hablaba,s,-,mos,n
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hablaré,ás,á,
emos,án
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habla, hablad
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comía,s,-,mos,n
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comeré,ás,á,
emos,án
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come,comed
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vivía,s,-,mos,n
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viviré,ás,á,
emos,án
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vive,vivid
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The
tables below are more detailed, and treat each tense separately; we will start
with the present tense:
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Spanish
Present Tense
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Present
indic
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yo
(I)
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Tú
(you)
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Ud./él/ella
(he/she)
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nosotros/as
(we)
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vosotros/as
(you)
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Uds./ellos/ellas
(they/you
formal)
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hablar
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hablo
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hablas
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habla
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hablamos
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habláis
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hablan
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comer
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como
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comes
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come
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comemos
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coméis
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comen
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Vivir
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vivo
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vives
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vive
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vivimos
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vivís
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viven
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Now
we will have a look at the preterit,
which is equal to the past tense, look
at the table and examine the changes that occur with each verbs category:
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Spanish
Past Tense (preterit)
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Preterit indic
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yo
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tú
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Ud./él/ella
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nosotros/as
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vosotros/as
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Uds./ellos/ellas
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hablar
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hablé
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hablaste
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habló
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hablamos
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hablasteis
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hablaron
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comer
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comí
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comiste
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comió
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comimos
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comisteis
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comieron
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vivir
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viví
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viviste
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vivió
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vivimos
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vivisteis
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vivieron
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Another
tense which is very easy is the future tense,
you don’t have to worry about the stem here, you can take the whole Spanish
verb and add the future endings to it and that would be it:
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Future
Tense in Spanish
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Future indic
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yo
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tú
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Ud./él/ella
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Nosotros/as
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Vosotros/as
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Uds./ellos/ellas
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hablar
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hablaré
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hablarás
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hablará
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hablaremos
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hablaréis
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hablarán
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comer
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comeré
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comerás
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comerá
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comeremos
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comeréis
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comerán
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vivir
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viviré
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vivirás
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vivirá
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viviremos
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viviréis
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vivirán
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Now
we will see the Imperative in Spanish,
which is also very easy, because it has only two different categories of
endings, look at the table below:
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Spanish
Imperfect
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Imperfect
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yo
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tú
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Ud./él/ella
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Nosotros/as
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Vosotros/as
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Uds./ellos
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hablar
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hablaba
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hablabas
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hablaba
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hablábamos
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hablabais
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hablaban
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comer
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comía
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comías
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comía
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comíamos
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comíais
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comían
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vivir
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vivía
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vivías
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vivía
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vivíamos
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vivíais
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vivían
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The
present perfect is another Spanish tense
which is very important, and used often as well, the good news is that it’s
easy to form, have a look at the table:
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Spanish
Present Perfect
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yo
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tú
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Ud./él/ella
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Nosotros/as
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vosotros/as
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Uds./ellos
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he
hablado
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has
hablado
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ha
hablado
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hemos
hablado
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habéis
hablado
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han
hablado
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he
comido
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has
comido
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ha
comido
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hemos
comido
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habéis
comido
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han
comido
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he
vivido
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has
vivido
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ha
vivido
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hemos
vivido
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habéis
vivido
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han
vivido
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And
finally the imperative or commands in Spanish, a fun to learn mood, and can
be very useful, especially if you like giving orders to others, try to memorize
it, it’s tricky, because you will have to do some switching, examine the table
below, and write down the endings that each verbs category take:
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Spanish
Imperative (Commands)
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Commands
(Mandatos):
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tú
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Vosotros/as
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usted
|
ustedes
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hablar
No
…
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¡Habla!
¡No
hables!
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¡Hablad!
¡No
habléis!
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¡Hable!
¡No
hable!
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¡Hablen!
¡No
hablen!
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comer
No …
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¡Come!
¡No
comas!
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¡Comed!
¡No
comáis!
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¡Coma!
¡No
coma!
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¡Coman!
¡No
coman!
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vivir
No …
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¡Vive
¡No
vivas!
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¡Vivid!
¡No
viváis!
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¡Viva!
¡No
viva!
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¡Vivan!
¡No
vivan!
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I
hope you have learned from this page to deal with the Spanish verbs in
different tenses, especially: the regular verbs, present tense, past tense, Spanish future
tense, imperfect, Spanish present perfect, and the imperative. Good luck with
the rest of the pages!
I
hope you benefited from this lesson (the Spanish regular verbs), please check
our other lessons to take advantage of the other useful information they may
contain.
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