K.I.S.S.

Constructing simple sentences is the way to establish a firm foundation. Without them, we cannot create more complex ones. The words are the building blocks and the order is the mortar. This week, let’s focus a bit on setting up simple Spanish sentences.

First off, what is a sentence? Well, the basic sentence has two things: a subject and a predicate. It takes you back to grammar school, I know. But the subject is who is doing the action. Therefore, the predicate is what is being done by the subject. For example:

I speak.

I = the subject; speak = what the subject is doing

Spanish does the same thing. Let’s use the same example. The Spanish verb for “to speak” is hablar. The word for “I” is yo. I will conjugate this verb to create the simple sentence “I speak”: Yo hablo.

This is pretty easy so far, huh?

Now let’s try some other verbs to create the same simple sentences:

beber = to drink > Yo bebo. = I drink.

vivir = to live > Yo vivo. = I live.

There are two other aspects I would like to point out with simple sentences. The first is that in Spanish, you do not need to use the word “Yo” to mean “I.” The simple reason is because the verb conveys that information by how you conjugate it. We use to be able to do this in very old Anglo Saxon which becomes our current, modern English language we use today. Each subject: I, you, he, she, we, they, it – all had a different way of sounding and appearing. But over the centuries, we lost those parts of the verb, thus depending on using separate words to show the subject. Spanish kept this aspect of their verbs. Will time tell when Spanish goes the way of old Anglo Saxon to current, modern English? I suppose only time will tell on that one. As of right now, you do not need to use a word to convey the subject in Spanish as the verb will do that for you. People use it to add emphasis or really clarify who they are talking about when it is used. Beginners speaking Spanish, I encourage to use the subject words as it may help when thinking of the conjugation of the verb you want to use.

The second aspect of simple sentences is the different verb conjugations. In Spanish, there are three verb types: those ending with -ar, -er, and -ir. Here they are in a handy table to help you visualize them better. I will use the three verbs mentioned in today’s post.

English Subject	Spanish Subject	-AR Conjugation	-ER Conjugation	-IR Conjugation
I	Yo	hablo	bebo	vivo
You (familiar)	Tú	hablas	bebes	vives
S/He, You (formal)	Ella/Él, Usted (Vd.)	habla	bebe	vive
We	Nosotros or Nosotras	hablamos	bebemos	vivimos
They (familiar)	Vosotros or Vosotras	habláis	bebéis	vivís
They (formal)	Ellas, Ellos, Ustedes (Vds.)	hablan	beben	viven

I will get into more on this last aspect of simple sentences later. But for now, I think this is enough. Practice, practice, practice! If you have questions, please do not hesitate to post a comment below. Hasta luego.