Verbs are known as those words whose elements, within the sentence, have a variation of person, number, tense, manner and aspect.
The verb indicates the process of carrying out an action within the sentence and its function is that of the nucleus of the predicate.
The anatomy of the verb consists of a lexeme, in which its meaning resides, accompanied by morphemes of person, number, tense, mode, and aspect.
Person and number
The person in the verbs indicates who has performed or performs the action of the verb. Verbal persons are personal pronouns in the masculine or feminine, singular or plural ( gender and number ). Each verbal person corresponds to a form.
-First person: The person who speaks is the one who performs the action and they are indicated with the pronouns I (singular) and nosotros/as (plural).
Example: “I walk every afternoon through my neighborhood.”
-Second person: The person who speaks is not the one who has carried out the action of the verb, but is the one who listens and expresses himself with the pronouns you (singular), vosotros/as and ustedes (plural).
Example: “You are the ones in charge of making the cakes.”
–Third person: In this case, the person speaking is not in charge of doing the action nor is he listening. The pronouns that indicate the third person are: he/she (singular) and they/they (plural).
Example: “They have been the ones who destroyed the rear view mirror of the car.”
As seen in the previous examples, the grammatical person also indicates the number (singular or plural) of the verb, that is, how many people perform the action indicated by the verb. If the action is performed by a single person, the subject and the verb will be singular. On the other hand, if it is done by two or more people, then the subject and the verb will be in the plural.
Time
The forms of the verb also indicate when the action will be performed. For this, the grammar establishes three forms that refer to time: present, past and future.
– Present: in this case, the verb expresses actions that are being carried out at this very moment according to the expression of the speaker. Although it may be that they are not occurring at the same moment. On many occasions, the forms in the present may be expressing actions of future or past time.
Example: “I’m eating” (Simple Present Form) / “The movie premiere is tomorrow at seven in the evening” (Present Form that expresses a future action).
-Past: The verb expresses actions that have already happened. Although there are different forms of the past, depending on whether the action has been more recent or not.
Example: “Yesterday I ate lentils” / “Today I went to the doctor.”
-Future: The verb expresses actions that have not yet happened.
Example: “We will eat pasta with tomato this noon” / “Tomorrow the results of the exams will be out.”
Mode
Verbal modes are the different ways in which verbal action can be expressed. The mode of the verb expresses the speaker’s attitude towards what he says. Classifies, in this case, the action, process or state of the verb from the point of view of the issuer, depending on whether he sees it as real, subjectively or appellatively.
According to Spanish grammar, there are three verb modes: indicative, subjunctive and imperative.
-Indicative: in this mode the speaker expresses real or concrete actions.
In this mode, there can be simple actions that are expressed through the present, present perfect (past), future and conditional.
Example: «I eat» (present) / «I ate» (perfect tense) / «I will eat» (future) / «I would eat» (conditional).
Compound actions are also contemplated through the compound past tense (“I have sung”), the pluperfect past tense (“I had sung”), the previous past tense (“I have sung”), the future compound (“I will have sung”) and conditional perfect (“I would have eaten”).
-Subjunctive: expresses a possibility, a hypothetical action, wishes, doubts or fears. In general, these verbs are usually subordinated, in the sentence, to another that belongs to the indicative mode.
As in the indicative mood, the subjunctive has simple actions, which are expressed through the present (“Yo ame”), past perfect/past tense (“I will love or love”), future (“I will love”).
But it also presents compound tenses: past perfect (“I have loved”), past perfect (“I would have or would have loved”) and future (“I would have loved”).
-Imperative: mode that indicates an order or request from the sender to the receiver. It is also used to issue warnings or threats. By its very nature, this mode is defective. This means that it does not have shapes for all people and numbers.
Example: “Go to your room to pick up what you have thrown!”
Verb forms
There are compound verb forms with verbs other than “to have” and verb periphrases that can indicate different tenses. There are many types of these forms and to analyze them all would be to discuss a very complex and extensive topic. But there are three that are essential in periphrases. Those known as “non-personal forms”.
-Infinitive: It can be used only in verbal periphrases. Indicates the concept of the action, which extends in time, whether for the past, present or future. This form is the one that is used, also, in the entry of the dictionaries for the meaning, and it is the form that is also used, to name its conjugation. At the same time, the infinitive can act as both a verb and a noun.
-Gerund: It can be used in simple and compound forms with some auxiliary verbs. Example: “I’m reading.” It indicates actions that have not finished, that continue to be carried out, whether in the past, present and future.
-Participle: It is used in verbal forms composed of indicative and subjunctive. It determines indications finished in the past, in the present and also the future. In the sentence it can assume adjective functions.
Examples: “The car is broken down.”
Verb conjugation
Verb conjugations are the different endings that a verb has in the infinitive. In Spanish there are three conjugations.
-First conjugation: All verbs whose infinitive ends in “-ar”.
-Second conjugation: All verbs whose infinitive ends in “-er”.
-Third conjugation: All verbs whose infinitive ends in “-ir”.
Types of verbs
From the point of view of the morphology that the verb adopts in its conjugation. These are divided into the following fields:
-Regular and irregular: Regular verbs do not present variations in their root when conjugating them: live, eat, break… Meanwhile, irregular verbs present variations in their root: give (I give, we gave, diere), want (I want, we wanted…), to be (I am, you are, let us be…).
-Transitive and intransitive:
Transitive verbs are those whose action passes through a person or thing other than the subject that does it. They always require a direct complement to complete their action.
Example: “Luis cuts a cake.”
Intransitive verbs, for their part, their action does not pass through a person or thing other than the subject that executes it. They do not require a direct complement, they have a full meaning.
Example: “I come from my town.”