Whoa.....it was as if you get into water expecting it not to rise beyond chest-level, only to find that it is deep enough to sink a dozen of you stacked one on top of the other. I am talking about the usage of irregular verbs in Spanish. It started with 'Tener' and I expected such verbs to be an exception but it looks like they could be numerous enough to make the cut as 'the rule'.
So we have verbs changing o -> ue and e -> ie in all 3 forms - 'ar', 'er' and 'ir'. What's more you have a 3rd category in 'ir', verbs where e -> i! Fortunately, only 2 verbs fall into o -> ue group of 'ir' verbs
- dormir (to sleep) and morir (to die) and by the time we were done learning about all these, I seriously didn't know whether it would be better to sleep or to die :-)
The luxury of having only 2 verbs in the change group doesn't extend to other groups. When we asked the teacher, if the other groups contained only the verbs mentioned by her she replied (with a wicked grin, creo que) in the negative. One of us mustered enough courage to ask how we mere mortals could figure out if a verb is regular or irregular. 'You will have to remember' was the answer. I think my chances of being able to converse in Spanish just dropped by a mighty 20%. :-(
As if this wasn't enough, now it was the turn of the mighty 'Gustar' (to like) and 'Encantar' (to like a lot). Both can be used with an object or a verb. If used with an object, the conjugation changes as per the plurality of the object whereas a verb should be used without any conjugation. e.g. Gusta el chocolate vs. Gustan los chocolates. If you want to say 'like eating chocolates', it will be 'Gusta comer el chocolate/los chocolates'. There is no 'Gustan' if used with a verb.
I have 4 more classes' worth of knowledge to cram into my already over-crowded tiny brain. Hope I can do it :-)
So we have verbs changing o -> ue and e -> ie in all 3 forms - 'ar', 'er' and 'ir'. What's more you have a 3rd category in 'ir', verbs where e -> i! Fortunately, only 2 verbs fall into o -> ue group of 'ir' verbs
- dormir (to sleep) and morir (to die) and by the time we were done learning about all these, I seriously didn't know whether it would be better to sleep or to die :-)
The luxury of having only 2 verbs in the change group doesn't extend to other groups. When we asked the teacher, if the other groups contained only the verbs mentioned by her she replied (with a wicked grin, creo que) in the negative. One of us mustered enough courage to ask how we mere mortals could figure out if a verb is regular or irregular. 'You will have to remember' was the answer. I think my chances of being able to converse in Spanish just dropped by a mighty 20%. :-(
As if this wasn't enough, now it was the turn of the mighty 'Gustar' (to like) and 'Encantar' (to like a lot). Both can be used with an object or a verb. If used with an object, the conjugation changes as per the plurality of the object whereas a verb should be used without any conjugation. e.g. Gusta el chocolate vs. Gustan los chocolates. If you want to say 'like eating chocolates', it will be 'Gusta comer el chocolate/los chocolates'. There is no 'Gustan' if used with a verb.
I have 4 more classes' worth of knowledge to cram into my already over-crowded tiny brain. Hope I can do it :-)
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